The Official Preppy Handbook
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (August 2015) |
LC Class | LC58.7 .O35 1980 | |
Followed by | True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World |
---|
The Official Preppy Handbook (1980) is a
The book addresses "preppy" life from birth to old age, lending understanding to the cultural aspects of "preppy" life. In general, elementary and secondary school, college, and the young adult years receive the most attention. Coverage lessens during the book's latter chapters. The book was first published in 1980 by
Overview
The Official Preppy Handbook explains and satirizes what it takes to be a preppy person in the 1980s, parodying the lifestyle of the WASP elite. Birnbach reveals through an ironic tone where preps go to school, where they summer, what brands they wear, and how they decorate their homes. Birnbach divides The Official Preppy Handbook into seven sections, each devoted to a different period of the preppy lifestyle. The Handbook begins by caricaturizing the childhood of a preppy person in 1980.[5] Lisa Birnbach satirizes a prep’s ideal family lifestyle, and humorously advises readers how to pick, interview, and gain acceptance into a prep school.[6] The book then wittily discusses “the best years of your life” – a prep’s college years.[7] With tongue in cheek, Birnbach elucidates which college courses to take, how to design one’s dorm room, and how to party at college.[8] In Chapters 5 and 6, the book explains the prep adult life as first a “young executive”, and later as a retired adult in “the Country Club Years”.[9] Birnbach jokingly educates readers on navigating a cocktail party, networking, and vacationing.[10] The Official Preppy Handbook also teaches readers how to dress preppily.[11] In chapter 4, Birnbach emphasizes the importance of appearing effortless, preppy and casual, writing, “socks are frequently not worn on sporting occasions or on social occasions for that matter. This provides a year round beachside look that is so desirable that comfort may be thrown aside”.[12]
Effect
The book's reflections on
The book also represented a resurgence of interest in preppy culture that aided the growth of retailer
The Handbook exposed preppy culture to the masses, and helped to democratize the preppy subculture. Prior to the book, primarily only wealthy WASP elites adopted the preppy subculture. From the 1920s, WASPs dominated American universities, and preppy fashion was traditionally worn on university campuses.[17] However, as universities became less exclusive as a result of economic and cultural shifts, preppiness as a subculture became less exclusive. Preppy fashion adopted new nuances, and preppy culture has become more inclusive.[18] By writing The Official Preppy Handbook, Lisa Birnbach helped to further democratize preppy fashion and culture. Birnbach explained in her introduction that the handbook is not intended as an exclusive text describing preppiness as subculture reserved for “an elite minority lucky enough to attend prestigious private schools”.[19] Rather, the Handbook was written as a guidepost for the revival of the preppy style. It shared the secrets of the preppy code, making preppy seem “neat, attractive, and suddenly attainable”.[20]
See also
- The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, a roughly contemporaneous British book on a similar subject
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
- ISBN 9781599215211. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-14-303553-4. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- Wikidata Q7754751
- ^ a b Bourne, Leah (2010-01-20). "The Cult Of J.Crew". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
- ISBN 978-1-57851-183-9. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8156-0549-2. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ^ Selsberg, Andy (August 2007). "The Official Guide to Official Handbooks: The Rich Legacy of Putting Others in Their Cultural Place". The Believer. Vol. 5, no. 6. Retrieved 2013-04-28.
- ISBN 978-0847836611.
- ISBN 978-0847836611.
- Wikidata Q7754751
- ISBN 978-0847836611.
External links
- Review of The Official Preppy Handbook on CollegeConfidential.com
- Speaking Profile Lisa Birnbach's profile and lecture topics on the Random House Speakers Bureau
- Wallace, Carol Mcd. (24 October 2005). "We're All Preppies Now". The New York Times. p. 21. —Op-Ed reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the book's publication.