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"When hipsters, rappers, teen idols, and fashion junkies are decked out like the Kennedys at Hyannis Port, what&amp;amp;#x2019;s a born-and-bred preppy guy to do? One boat-shoe-wearing GQ editor has some advice\n\n[\n\n](http://blog.gq.com/images/.a/6a00d8341cc8d453ef01156fc6683a970c-pi.jpg)\n\nAt my high school graduation party in Atlanta back in 1999, my father gave a toast. Raising his glass, he said, &amp;amp;#x201C;Son, we&amp;amp;#x2019;re proud of you, but don&amp;amp;#x2019;t come back from college in New York all Yankee-assed, tattooed, and dressed in black.&amp;amp;#x201D; You see, my dad had taught me how to dress like his father: We wear neckties with tight, small knots. We wear boat shoes on weekends and loafers or bucks to work. We wear double-breasted blazers with red-and-green plaid pants to Christmas parties because\u2026when else? There are photos of me in Sebagos when I was 2\u2014and I fully planned on wearing those for the rest of my life. But what my dad and I couldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t have anticipated was that ten years after he gave his toast, tween idols, rock stars, and Yankee-assed dudes all over the streets of New York would be decked out in designer preppy garb, like there&amp;amp;#x2019;s a Fresh Prince party happening and everyone&amp;amp;#x2019;s going as Carlton.\n\nSure, trends go in cycles\u2014and maybe all those Obama-Kennedy comparisons helped give the prep movement its legs\u2014but the basic algorithm is that the cool kids are currently doing whatever Wes Anderson and Andr\u00E9 3000 did five to eight years ago. The Royal Tenenbaums came out in, what, 2001? Now we have Vampire Weekend singing about madras while wearing\u2026madras. Andr\u00E9 3000 switched from P-Funkster to dandy in 2003? Six years later, you get Pharrell Williams in bow ties and T.I. in a rotating roster of sweaters the color of sherbet. And don&amp;amp;#x2019;t get me started on the designer crowd; during the last New York Fashion Week, grown men were walking around in tortoiseshell glasses, Pee-wee bow ties, braided belts, pants hemmed short of their ankles, and $300 boat shoes with no socks. In the middle of February. Yes, we here at GQ have been\u2014and always will be\u2014fond of classic American style, but this runway-palooza looked like it was taken over by an army of overgrown 12-year-olds in middle-school uniforms.\n\nIf you want to embrace the preppy look, keep one thing in mind: Scale it back. The idea is to incorporate that Kennedy-era Americana into what you already wear, rather than blowing a sailboat-load of money overhauling your closet. Step one: Buy a seersucker jacket, a club tie, a trim navy blazer (with or without the flashy brass buttons), and a pair of slim-cut khakis hemmed without a break. Step two: Wear them one at a time. You can pair the seersucker jacket with jeans, sneakers, lace-ups\u2014whatever you normally wear. And the navy blazer works at the office or out to dinner as long as it&amp;amp;#x2019;s not accompanied by the repp tie, the khakis, the boat shoes, and throaty &amp;amp;#x201C;When I was at Hahvahd&amp;amp;#x201D; vocal stylings. This way you won&amp;amp;#x2019;t ever have to look back at photos of 2009 and wonder why you were dressed like that uppity blond prick in Wedding Crashers."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/i-want-my-preppy-style-back>