Club Chair Bulletin #22
Ruggedness and retrospect
What’s he been up to?
The best of twenty-four
We’ve been fortunate as of late to have been joined by a fairly large cohort of new members. If you happen to be one of those members, I’d like to extend a very warm welcome. There are a few meetings from earlier this year that I wanted to share, I don’t expect anyone to be trawling through the archive, but here are a few which I’m most proud of:
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In their infinite wisdom, Polo, over the years, have neglected to describe their trouser cuts in any real capacity, rather opting for memorable but somewhat unhelpful naming conventions instead. Here is my attempt to make sense of Polo’s preppy, poster-perfect pants.
As a buzzword “sustainable fashion” tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth, seeming to connote a style of its own rather than a wider practice. Looking to escape that, here I explore how collegiate fashion fits into an environmentally conscious approach to clothing.
An exploration into the language issues at the heart of the dissemination of fashion information on TikTok, a sort of schism produced when a populous has access to photography but not literature, and thus new terms get invented.
New to The Directory
The Prep Club Directory is an as-comprehensive-as-possible guide to retailers and labels specialising in collegiate fashion.
Worne - London, UK; E-comm - Highly curated and beautifully styled vintage with lookbooks that’d make most big labels blush, showroom available by appointment.
Danner - American leather hiking boots which carry as much mountaineering pedigree as they do streetwear appeal.
Diemme - Italian outdoor bootmakers, producing modern and heritage silhouettes.
Wall’s - Longstandng workwear label with a focus on outdoor workwear, vintage pieces are affordable and can make good alternatives to Carhartt and Eddie Bauer.
Rocky Mountain Featherbed - Americana in the mountains, producing some of the highest quality down jackets on the market, as good today as they’ve always been.
On the Radar
A round-up of the things in prepdom and life besides (if such a thing exists) which have caught my attention as of late:
Vintage Wall’s “Blizzard Pruf” Workwear
Mentioned above as a new addition to The Directory, I’ve been seeking out pieces from Texas workwear label Wall’s. Considering their Lone Star roots, it’s somewhat perverse that that which they do best is cold weather gear. Whilst their canvas jackets are nice as affordable alternatives to Carhartt, I’m most interested by their “Blizzard Pruf”, down-filled, puffer pieces which have more than just a scent of the Eddie Bauer classics about them. There’s also the “Down Western Wear” line which has similar appeal.
Popover shirts
I received a copy Black Ivy for Christmas and looking through those gorgeous images made me realise the sheer abundance of popover shirts, especially when juxtaposing said abundance with the staggering abscence of popovers these days. Of course, heritage labels are happy to oblige, but I’m still left wondering exactly when they lost their mainstream appeal, and whilst there’s always a time and a place for a polo shirt (though my opinions on those probably warrant their own article), I can’t help but feel like a popover just has more sauce.
70s style hiking boots
Konsta over at Vacations On put out a brilliant history of hiking boots a little over a year ago, I’d wander over to that first for some actual facts before going any further with my ramblings here.
Leather hiking boots in the city has been a thing for a good while now, a slightly more recent move I’ve clocked is to pair them with tailoring. I like that a lot, managing to break all the rules, whilst keeping to the traditional visual language of a leather shoe with a suit.
The other detail I wanted to pick out was playful lace colours, particularly matching them to an outfit, changing them regularly, which is a lot easier on a shoe with D rings. The hiker look generally responds well to a flamboyant lace choice, and doing so can fill the void of a colour matched sock on the coldest days.
The Platonics, Part I: The Ivy Staples
I have, frequently, chastised the writing of articles which detail the “essential” pieces one should have in their wardrobe. Capsule collections and “essential” piece lists, in attempting to be universal, I find tend instead to lack identity or personal connection to the wearer, there is no sentimentality, and thus no authenticity.