Club Chair Bulletin #18
On Deep Pile and the Prep Revival
What’s he been up to?
Hello, thanks for picking up this week’s copy of the bulletin, last week’s meeting can be attended here. We took a look at retro-gorp, a not-too-serious take on wearing heritage outdoors wear. Today, some thoughts on mainstream appeal, fleece, and Korean baseball merchandise.
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The prep I see day-to-day
First, some context, I do not live in an overtly trendsetting city, as such if I’m seeing things being worn, I can quite comfortably say that they've settled into the mainstream for the time being. I’ve began to see the new prep revival which the magazines have been talking about take hold.
The piece I’ve noticed most is the Polo flag knit, which given recent events may not be the best of moves anymore. The garment itself though is a fascinating study in brand recognition outside of explicit logos, it manages to be quintessentially Ralph.
I liked the flag jumper, though election based apprehensions kept me from buying one, since you yanks managed to drop the ball it won’t be going back on my wishlist. Seeing it more often does at first invoke some sort of hipster gatekeeper reaction, though of course that’s ridiculous in the grand scheme of things.
Rugby shirts are another with a sizeable jump in popularity, again we’re really looking to Polo as our primary prep provider, there is perhaps separate writing to be done on how Ralph have come out so much better than their contemporaries in this revival. I saw more of them in spring so I’m not so sure if they’ve taken hold though.
Perhaps the trickiest garment to get right, quarter zips are everywhere. Elaborate thoughts on them can be read here, in essence however, I think they need particular consideration so as to not look like a banker (swap the b for another letter if you’d like). However, ff I may say so, Gen Z do a damned decent job, going oversized as a start is a great move to get away from previous connotations. I still prefer to see sweatshirt or chunkier (not cable) knits here, but context is king as always.
90s spec oversized polos, loafers obviously, though a shift towards the Weejun over the Docs Adrian adds some extra prep, and cricket jumpers too.
As I alluded to above, there is somewhat of a silly gut reaction here, that’s important to ignore. If anything, I’ve found it rather refreshing to wear some slightly more relaxed prep looks and feel as though I’m blending in.
The images presented are a little basic, perhaps, but that’s kind of the point, the expression is really quite simple, especially when compared to the prep of the two-thousands, of course the club tends to engage with more over-the-top approaches usually, but understatement can be nice too. There’s scope to offer contrast from one day to the next.
Chasing deep pile
Whilst we’re on the trend bus, let us take a little diversion down fleece avenue. They featured in the retro-gorp handbook, and they’ve been on my mind at large. My current rabbit hole is one of compiling the various fabrics from which fleece-like garments can be constructed. We arrive at a bit of a semantic difficulty here in that “fleece” might refer both to the cloth and to the garment, though to say a “fleece fleece” sounds laughably redundant. The full guide is scheduled for a few week’s time, ready for when it gets really cold.
Along the way I picked up a quarter snap from Woolrich for a steal, but fell too for the deep pile jacket, which is proving more elusive at a price I’m happy with. I’m generally upset by the prospect of parting with three figures for a polyester jacket, no matter its iconic status. As a spoiler for the guide, I’m keeping my eyes on Casentino as a likely alternative, though I may eventually fold to the classic.
On the Radar
Regal Shoe Co. Gore-Tex U-tips
The club loves an apron-front/u-tip/golf derby, more wearable than a plain toe given their slight casual-ness, yet still sleek and modern. Regal’s GTX embossed U-tips have the streetwear appeal of Gore-Tex, and the club-approved appeal of being pebble grain, which can prove tricky to find for this shoe, they're considerably more affordable than the Paraboot Mirage.
Korean MLB
As is often the case, Korea just gets better MLB merch than the rest of us. This is an apparel store far more than it is a merchandise store, the extreme bias towards the Yankees and Red Sox suggests as such (in fact only the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Padres and Red Sox feature in several categories, apologies if your affiliations lie with any of the other twenty-five). Regardless, there is some serious heat on display here, hanging out of reach of us in the West. I’ve compiled a small orchard of forbidden fruit below:
