Prep By Prep, Inch By Inch

Abercrombie and Fitch is dead; long live Abercrombie and Fitch.  Did you ever stop to ask why there's a moose head hanging over the cash registers at A&F?  What's with all the hockey sticks?  Does anyone remember the first incarnation of A&F?

A&F's flagship store was on Madison Avenue in New York City and filled with goods for hunting, fishing, and sporting.  Fashion was more of an afterthought, like what your grandparents wore.  It died a dignified death befitting any store that catered to the monied elite of Bar Harbor and Nantucket.  Its death was duly noted in "The Official Preppy Handbook", the parody that some people used as a Bible.

Abercrombie and Fitch is now the must-buy store for the new "Preps".  Just in time for "True Prep", the sequel to the OPH.  The new Preps sport Lily and Tory and Hermes and Goyard.  There are still the old standbys of L.L. Bean, Ralph Lauren, and J Crew.

Raise your hand if any of these shoes ever graced the floor of your closet.  Weejuns, Top Siders, Tretorns, Pappagallos, Maine hunting boots, or duck shoes?  Stand up if any of these ever covered your body.  Paisley, madras, Lacoste, embroidered corduroy, or monogrammed anything?  True Preps of the world unite if you owned any of these!  Bean field coat, Chesterfield, Skyr, Carroll Reed, Chris Craft, or anything Orvis.

All of a sudden I feel like piling the kids and the dog into the Volvo, heading out to the Vineyard, and playing a set of tennis with numerous breaks for Bloody Marys.