Deconstructed Preppy: She said...

Phat Tony and I have found ourselves seeing eye to eye on all matters of taste since our early days at the McDowell School of Dance. Boiling down Fall 07's trend offerings into one shared theme is no exception. The notion has been brewing for some time now as we have recently explored both seersucker and summer plaid and the notion is: deconstructed preppy.

Here we have a unique situation where we've seen all the elements to a look before, yet somehow, when tweaked and recombined, we create something new without creating something, well, just plain crazy. Our favorite visual guide comes from Balenciaga:


Here's a great example of flow from season to season. All those loose-fitting dresses you were wearing this summer? Throw on a blazer, add some tights and the scarf of your choice and, voila, we arrive at something very new and current.

Before you go do anything bold like pop your collar, let's discuss what we mean by deconstructed. From both men and women, we're looking for the UNexpected here. So if Kanye West is doing it, did it three minutes ago or appeared at VMA's in it, we might want to rethink things. We're looking for something divergent from the irony of the preppy rapper, we're looking for something a bit more lived in. For example, for women, we hate the idea of pastels and pearls right now but we love the idea of a men's-style striped shirt and blazers over everything (especially where we wouldn't think they'd belong).

We also love some of the androgynous looks for women and deconstructed preppy happens to be one of the unique trends that crosses gender boundaries. More to come for the Men's point of view but until then I leave you with one last visual for inspiration. It's a bit reminiscent of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's inside out jacket circa 1990 and yes, we love it.