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taking out the word “hip”, then yeah — Boston/New England.
A lot that is hip in the Boston area in regard to fashion, a huge concentration of the highest-end brands in Boston, and many of the lifestyle and athleisure trends are emanating from that area. The preppy aspect can only be but so hip but it is often mimicked by "hipper" crowds. Remember the peacoat trend, or when bean boots became popular again? If there is a better blend of traditional and cosmopolitan and/or 'hip' than Boston and environs it is hard to find and name.
San Francisco and Denver are obviously not in the running here. Minneapolis and Atlanta are also out. Los Angeles and Miami are stylish but don't fit the description in OP so lets eliminate those. What we're left with:
Boston
Washington DC
Chicago
New York
Personally I think Chicago is the weakest option left here but it's also the only city I don't have personal experience with so take that with a grain of salt.
After that we get down to BOS, DC, NYC and I think we get into close competition within this tier. The topic says CITY not METRO, and I think Boston and NYC would benefit here from the Metro level analysis moreso than DC. Not to say DC metro isn't preppy but Boston and NYC metros are the epitome of it and all three cities have large swathes of the city limits that don't comform to that aesthetic, probably NYC most of all.
San Francisco and Denver are obviously not in the running here. Minneapolis and Atlanta are also out. Los Angeles and Miami are stylish but don't fit the description in OP so lets eliminate those. What we're left with:
Boston
Washington DC
Chicago
New York
Personally I think Chicago is the weakest option left here but it's also the only city I don't have personal experience with so take that with a grain of salt.
After that we get down to BOS, DC, NYC and I think we get into close competition within this tier. The topic says CITY not METRO, and I think Boston and NYC would benefit here from the Metro level analysis moreso than DC. Not to say DC metro isn't preppy but Boston and NYC metros are the epitome of it and all three cities have large swathes of the city limits that don't comform to that aesthetic, probably NYC most of all.
I'll give the nod to DC here but it's close.
Oh..yea if this is the city not metro-then DC would win, yes.
More grungy and casual athlesirure-type dresed people in Boston than DC. More Hipster/uurbane-type people in NYC.
Let’s be clear, NYC is not preppy any longer. Actually no cities on this list really are any more.
Even in some of the wealthy NYC suburbs, sportswear(albeit fancy) is more common than preppy wear.
Non-urban New England and metropolitan Southern suburbs are the last places you’ll find it.
Hmm...some people actually think a prep style is an anachronism - it might be say in CA or NY, but having attended a well-known New England prep school, and being a native Southerner, in some settings the prep, conservative/classic style is alive and well it seems to me...
The style may be less prevalent now, but you'll still see it in Boston, west MA, and all around central and west TN/Memphis, northern MS say, Oxford, central Alabama ( suburban Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Jackson MS, Tallahassee, Knoxville, Little Rock, and even some areas around Dallas TX.
Many buyers have never become a slave to current fashion, esp in men's clothing, while many NYer's were wearing Hugo Boss suits with padded shoulders, professionals all around the south were wearing Corbin, Hickey Freeman suits with pinpoint button-down shirts (white or blue), navy BLazers, and seersucker and poplin suits/jackets in the summer...
yeah, I still wear penny loafers and bucks.
Conservative styles always look good because they are classic...and no, I don't wear purple, green or brown shirts with suits because it's advertised on TV, or in GQ presented by effeminate genre.
I also would never wear these skin tight suits that look like they are 2 sizes too small, with those pistol narrow-cuffed pants, with the requisite tennis/sport shoes with white soles and colored socks.
Yeah, the only color socks I wear is black/midnight.....or white crews.
Let’s be clear, NYC is not preppy any longer. Actually no cities on this list really are any more.
Even in some of the wealthy NYC suburbs, sportswear(albeit fancy) is more common than preppy wear.
Non-urban New England and metropolitan Southern suburbs are the last places you’ll find it.
Yes, for sure. I voted Boston, but it's clearly not the city of Boston and hasn't been for a long time. It's the leisure markets on the periphery, which in this case would include the North Shore, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket, and even up through the coast of Maine. Also, the official summer leisurewear of dads all across the wealthy western suburbs is Vineyard Vines and the like.
In the NYC area, same would apply to areas like Summit/Ridgewood NJ, parts of Westchester & Fairfield, and the north shore of LI. And of course the Hamptons / Eastern LI.
I voted Boston, and it's pretty open and shut in my book. New England basically invented the preppy look in this country
Yeah, there is no contest here. NYC and Miami are far too trendy, the West and the Midwest are too casual. I had a summer job in Boston and so bought most of my weekday wardrobe there... then went back to UChicago and felt entirely out of place there.
There are preppy corners in the Deep South, but it's not new-money Atlanta. There's a preppy culture in DC (we still somehow have a J. Press store, the Yalies' go-to) but now it seems like a throwback even on the streets of Georgetown.
NYC, DC, and Boston. Hard disagree w/ Chicago; would say Twin Cities has more of this vibe than Chicago
White people in Chicago remind me more of Wayne's World or the cast from Roseanne than Banana Republic. Not a ton of tattoos and grunge, but kind of a real blue collar fashion ethos that seeks to blend in rather than stand out.
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