preppy look – lo stile dell’università americana

The new fashion of  the late 1980s and early 1990s was the preppy look. The word preppy derives from the American adjective  used in relation to expensive private university of  Northeastern America -preparatory schools (università private molto care). The fashion with this name is  denotes a person who has the characteristic of  an attendee (frequentatore) of these schools. As a matter of facts (a dire il vero) this fashion  started in the late 1940s and 1950s as the Ivy League – an athletic conference composed of sports teams – style of dress. The preppy look include argyle sweaters, chinos, madras, Nantucket Reds,button down Oxford cloth shirts, and boat shoes. Nowadays preppy looks is also composed by navy blue blazers (blazer da marina) with breast-pocket monogram (monogramma sulla tasca sul petto) or gold buttons (bottoni d’oro) and polo shirts.

Notes:

Chinos: from British and French military uniforms of the mid-19th century; they are trousers made of cotton.
Argyle sweater: argyle is a pattern is made of diamonds or lozenges (losanghe).

Madras:  light cotton fabric (tessuto) with typically patterned texture (tessuto con motivo) and plaid design (a quadretti)

Nantucket Reds : pants (pantaloni) originally adapted from the uniforms of  the New York Yacht Club.

Button down a shirt Oxford cloth shirt:  long shirt (camicia) with a collar (collo) , a full-length opening (aperta davanti), and sleeves (maniche) with cuffs (polsini).

Boat shoes: Mocassins made of canvas (tela) or leather (pelle) with non-marking (che non segnano) rubber soles (suole di gomma) designed for use on a boat