Expert tips for a preppy makeover
Get out your chinos and button down shirt. Preppy is back. By Park Jong-keun
The style of fashion popular with students at private universities and prep schools in northeastern United States has surged back into the public eye following the success of a couple of popular television shows here.
The U.S. cable TV series “Gossip Girl” got the ball rolling last year and clothing brands can thank recent hit “Boys over Flowers” on Korean network television, where the preppy clothes of impossibly pretty boys make the girls swoon.
To pull off a basic preppy look, get hold of a button down Oxford shirt and wear it with a checkered sweater, beige chinos and a navy blue jacket. But while it’s true that anybody can don these items, you may end up looking like a high school kid in uniform.
So you need to wear your shirts and pants the right way. To help do that, we recruited Jeong Ji-eun, chief designer of the local brand Bean Pole Jeans, and other experts to offer some advice.
Conventional style
In the 1970 classic “Love Story,” Jennifer (Ali MacGraw) was dressed in a neat checkered skirt with a white shirt, a sweater and a jacket. That’s typical preppy style. In Korea, as Polo Ralph Lauren was introduced in the 1980s, “cotton pants+button down shirt+jacket=preppy” became the fashion formula.
Foreign brands like Tommy Hilfiger, J. Press and Brooks Brothers, and local ones like Bean Pole and Hazzys have been producing preppy items ever since.
The preppy look on TV
Gossip Girl, which premiered in September 2007, shows 21st century-style preppy fashion. Set in a New York prep school, the show features socialite teenagers at the vanguard of the trend in the U.S.
The simple white shirt and sweater, and the short checkered skirt form the basic look, along with silk or velvet ribbons in their hair. The wealthy girls accentuate their preppy fashion with luxurious handbags or brooches on their jacket.
A checkered tie over an unbuttoned white shirt was the preppy look suggested by Gossip Girl.
How to pull it off
The best thing about trying out the preppy look is that you don’t necessarily have to buy new clothes. Find the right mix from what you already have, and you’re halfway there. Obviously, not everyone will look great dressed preppy, so keep a few pointers in mind. Beige-toned chinos are essential to any preppy style, and they go well with any color or type of shirt. And that's precisely the problem with the chinos, too. Because they’re so simple and straightforward, if you wear an ordinary shirt, you will end up looking rather stuffy.
To avoid that, try an argyle or checkered sweater, with oversized patterns, on top of the shirt. When it gets warmer, you can use checkered ties instead. Narrow ties look better on casual clothes.
For ladies wearing chinos, try swapping loafers for high heels to create a different preppy look.
Another rising trend is to roll up the hems of your chinos. And that means you have to choose your socks carefully, too. Go with the pairs in a similar color or pattern as your sweater.
But be warned: rolling up your trouser legs can make you look shorter.
Experts: Jeon Yeon-jin, chief accessory designer at Hazzys; Lim Hae-yeon, chief menswear designer at Hazzys; Jeong Bo-young, chief womenswear designer at Hazzys.
By Kang Seung-min JoongAng Ilbo [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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