Fashion Nerds
1980s
Full path
  1. The timeline
  2. 1980s
  3. Preppy

Preppy

An older collegiate wardrobe returned as a widely recognizable fashion code. Familiar blazers, knitwear and plaid could signal tradition while allowing playful reinterpretation.

Blazers and button-down shirtsPolo shirts and knit sweatersPlaid collegiate separates

About Preppy

Preppy revived the dress of American preparatory schools and Ivy League and Seven Sisters colleges for a wider 1980s audience. Blazers, button-down shirts, polo shirts, knit sweaters and plaid separates suggested ease, tradition and collegiate belonging. Perry Ellis and Ralph Lauren adapted these codes into casual designer wardrobes, including womenswear drawn from menswear. The bestselling 1980 Preppy Handbook helped mark the revival. This was a new fashion cycle built on an older social vocabulary, with versions ranging from restrained classics to playful exaggeration.

Explore the designers

READ FURTHER

FIT Fashion History Timeline: 1980–1989The Museum at FIT: Ivy Style — Ralph LaurenThe Met: Perry Ellis, Suit, fall/winter 1981–82Flag sweater — original source
Back to 1980s