Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
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So why has the preppy look endured? Answers Perry Ellis creative director Michael Maccari, "Because it is time- less. Guys understand clean, good quality—pieces that work back into their wardrobes—and to me those are at the heart of preppy." Much-loved menswear designer Michael Bastian, who typically pairs Nantucket red trousers with a classic tuxedo jacket for his own black-tie turnout, echoes that sentiment. "Preppy is really the American guy's default setting," he says, warning that "it's when you overthink it that it gets all precious." His fall 2014 must-have? "A Shetland blazer." Jeff Halmos, who codesigns the heritage brand Haspel with Sam Shipley, says, "The term itself is really just a collegiate way of explaining classic American style. It's an enduring look that gets passed down from gen- eration to generation." W omen have always had an easier time with the preppy look, as Talbots had already embarked on its crawl from Hingham, Massachusetts, to malls across America. But ground zero was definitely the Lake Forest Shop, founded in 1922 and now run by the granddaughter of the original owner, Ellen Stirling. It even had its own Pappagallo shop within the store, providing thousands of preppy women with their "Blossom" f lats, the precursor to the Tory Burch "Reva" ballerina. Lilly Pulitzer's rambunctiously printed clothing was only marginally available in a tiny epony- mous boutique in the Deer Path Inn (managed by one of her buddies, Mari McCormick, who also owned the inn), but companies like Jax, Jamison, and Carroll Reed, along with trips to Trimingham's in Bermuda, helped round out a proper preppy wardrobe. Next to dressing up, preppies love a good time out on the town. After outgrowing college bars (do they ever, really?) the natural progression is to places that sport a decidedly retro, clubby feel, and preferably a real club. In the pecking order of answers to "whereyawannago?" the Casino, Saddle and Cycle, or the aforementioned Racquet Club top the list. When the Pump Room pumped its last drop of glamour and Cricket's—the quintessential prep hangout in the Tremont hotel—was converted into a Ditka's Steakhouse, RL took over as the purveyor of swank, and still manages to pack them in with dishes like chicken hash and Dover sole. New to the scene, the two- year-old Tortoise Club is clearly going after RL's lunch crowd, with preppy favorites like Cobb salad and, of course, that classic sole. Prep style seems to cycle back to the front of the line every decade or so. Popped collars on polo shirts have made a comeback, as have circle pins and headbands. Brightly col- ored trousers seem to be everywhere these days, courtesy of companies like Vineyard Vines and Bonobos, as are Topsiders and wing tips. And from outward appearances, the East Coast preppy and the Midwestern preppy basically look the same. But it's the intrinsic tenets of a Midwestern life—a mix of no-nonsense values, lack of pretentions, and aw-shucks charm—that will always delineate the preps in these parts as decidedly top-drawer. MA On July 4, 1981, nine months after Lisa Birnbach's best seller, The Offcial Preppy Handbook, was published, I received 13 copies as birthday gifts. Even today, my mother, uncle, sister, nephew, friend, and neighbor will send a dog-eared copy found in a thrift shop or at a yard sale. It makes me wonder: Am I doomed to live the rest of my days known only as a preppy? Am I to be a preppydom ghost, a bow-tied, Ralph Lauren-clad Jacob Marley? Let's begin with my name. At birth, preppy boys are bestowed with a formal name, one that encompasses several family surnames, yet could easily grace the entrance of a law frm or funeral home. A nickname comes next. I was christened Payson McDonnell Cushing, and nicknamed "Bunky" the day my mother brought me home from the hospital, a 7-pound, 8-ounce bundle of squirming infancy wrapped in pink and green. Mother found pet names much more endearing than a mortuary name, which makes me assume my sisters and I were conceived above a pet shop, as our given nick- names evoke clusters of chestnut-haired bunnies: Kitzie, Cricket, Bunky, Peanut, and Sister. Dad taught me the tenets of a well-dressed man, though living in Chicago has been a sartorial challenge. For those who may have been "sealed in a cave for centuries," as Evelyn Waugh wrote in Brideshead Revisited (required prep reading), Chicago is a sport fan's Shangri-la, and one's devotion is affrmed by the wearing of one's favorite team logo, an addiction that goes well beyond the Jumbotron of its stadium into the streets. The one time I attended a Bears game, wearing my Dad's prep school crested blazer, Nantucket red trousers, and penny loafers, I felt like Dorothy plunked down in Munchkin Land: out of place and bewildered by an ocean of orange, white, and china-blue baseball caps, team jerseys, tank tops, sweatshirts, starter jackets, ftness gear, and backpacks. The key to the preppy look is that it's unstud- ied: A prep can't rock Dolce & Gabbana. Part of an unwritten dress code is that preppies cannot buy their clothes in just any department store or boutique. For those aspir- ing to be the tailgate Beau Brummel of Soldier Field, there are many avenues in Chicago to quench one's thirst for preppy: J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren, Haberdash, Tory Burch, and Vineyard Vines. "Distinctively Preppy" also happens to be the fall advertising theme for Ralph Lauren, which has a chateau- like presence on Michigan Avenue. Promising the "versatility of the Ivy League look for a new generation of men," it gives Lisa Birnbach's certainties set down in her original Preppy Handbook a Presidential-Medal-of-Freedom worthiness. Prehistoric preppies like myself will be content to have our present day Windy City prep- sters roll with the traditions set by their forbears: signet rings, duck-motif corduroys, blue blazers, lambswool sweaters, toggle coats, and Belgian loafers. Even our good Mayor would be pleased—if only he were preppy. Preppy Forever Musings on a life in plaid. By Bunky Cushing "the key to the preppy look is that it's unstudied. a prep can't rock dolce & gabbana." –Bunky Cushing The author on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, April 2004. michiganavemag.com 121