In the past few months, the prep resurgence has made its way from New York’s cool-kids to the pages of GQ, which means that we’re only, like, one or two New York Times trend pieces away from total ubiquity. But a recent (wonderfully written) story from the Garage vertical at Vice wondered if the baggage-ridden trend should be embraced so openly in these Troubled Times™.
Author Rachel Tashjian posits that prep style is “inextricably linked to whiteness,” and, consequently, has become the look of choice for many of today’s emboldened-by-Trump white supremacists. “The Fred Perry polo was adapted by the alt-right as an almost official uniform,” she wrote, “and several people… have tweeted that Steve Bannon ‘personally killed the Barbour jacket.’”
What’s more, prep attire has “a tangled legacy of attempting to spin whiteness as an eccentricity.” Like sure, Go To Hell Pants are “goofy and fun,” but Tashjian argues that they’re permitted only because the people wearing them are traditionally “so firmly ensconced in the realm of privilege that [they] can actually afford to look like an idiot.”
At the same time, she notes that the aesthetic is also being embraced by brands and individuals that couldn’t be credibly accused or associated with any of the above, like Noah’s Brendan Babenzian, who responsibly manufactures prep-inspired pieces that say things like “Anti-Nazi League” and “Now We Must Redefine Man” (while un-ironically collaborating with Sperry, the whitest shoe brand, ever).
So “why are we so eager to cover ourselves in clothing associated with unquestioned privilege, racism, and even fascism?” Tashjian asks. “Is the prep revival ironic, or do its proponents hope to shake the garments of their sorry history and use their ubiquity as a channel for a larger message?”
“Noah offers a clue,” she says. “Its varsity scarf features not the name of an enviable Ivy League alma mater but the words, ‘HUMAN RIGHTS.’” As for the aforementioned Go to Hell Pants? “Only time will tell whether [they] could soon be a rallying cry directed at the monster who brought us Trump and took away the wax-cotton jacket.”
We’ll take literally anything at this point.
You can read more about it at Garage.
