For me, the toggle coat has always invoked images of cool crisp fall afternoons at collegiate football stadiums. The LL bean coat above is a great example of the classic toggle, and there are several companies offering them in their fall collections this year. My favorite is Rugby's version which is now available on their website, but I guess I will not purchase it since I just bought one for a steal at Brooks Brothers for $75. I can't wait for cooler days and football games to try it out.
8 comments:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2008/08/20/newsweek-preppy-look-racist-classist#new
I did not know if you have seen this article yet, however I am curious as to your take on it.
reddy is an idiot! enough said!!
As a somewhat "preppy" liberal (more of a Trad), I agree that this is a silly article. As for the coat in question, it's also known as the Duffle or Duffer coat, and as far as I know, was originated by the British Navy in WW2.
Although the duffel coat in its current form began in roughly 1890, it owes its popularity largely to its use by the Royal Navy in the second world war. You might be interested to learn that the origins of the duffel coat are extremely ancient indeed. When the Romans first invaded Britain in 55BC they found the natives to be wearing an item they named the 'Birrus Britannicus', a thick, hooded woollen coat specialised to the cold climate of the Isles. It bears a remarkable resemblance to the modern duffel coat!
I was going to say that this is a duffel coat, but it ould seem that everyone beat me to it.
reddy is an idiot! enough said!!
Richard,
I don't know, how can you discount what he has said as "Idiotic" Some of what he said rings true. Not all WASP are racist, but WASP have a history of racism.
One of the biggest reasons RL is who he is, is because WASP shund him. There again, he is another I should added to the list of people that groups such as yourself feel "unworthy" beacuse they are "New Money" Yet he has built an empire on your lifestyle.
However, I have brooken with the RL lable, as the workmanship in the clothing is lacking. There are those in America today who can not afford the kinds of clothing that maybe you and I can afford, and have to go with the next best thing, or the best that they can do with the money they have.
Reddy brings up the above point with this;
"The issue is that the Polo brand is built upon an aesthetic intended to communicate to the world, the wearer's successful assimilation into the traditional institutions of upwardly-mobile American culture-the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions. (Never mind that Ralph Lauren, née Lifshitz, was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants who most certainly would not have been allowed into the country clubs that many of his designs seem destined for.)"
I'm sorry but there is SOME truth to what he is saying. Everyone, wants to show the world that they have made it. And for most it's to wear RL clothing.
I just bought a tan or camel wool car/driving coat from Lands' End. Any opinions, Richard?
It's idiotic to blame all racism on WASPs. There are plenty of African American racists (Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson come to mind. They're anti-Semites, too.) There are Jewish racists and Hispanic racists and Italian racists and Irish racists, etc. It seems to me that some of these folks protest too much. Our current president went to two Ivy League schools and his wife went to one. Stop blaming WASPs for all of your problems. As Barrack Obama said... only in America is his story remotely possible. It seems to me he owes a certain debt to the WASPs who founded this country, doesn't he?
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