This year, I had the pleasure of spending Fashion’s Night Out at Goldyn, an essential destination for local lovers of well-made and well-priced designer goods and jewelry, where you can also find a selection of pieces from my store, Wishlist Vintage. Vanessa Barcus, Goldyn’s owner and buyer, possesses an incredible
Vintage prep inspired fall fashion from Shipley & Halmos (shipley-halmos.com) via out.com
eye for quality and detail and each season’s collection proves more modern, exciting and beautifully edited than the last. Recently, Vanessa began bringing in menswear and I was excited to get a peek at what she had in store this fall for Denver’s best dressed men.
A modern collection inspires vintage recollection
As I browsed the racks, sipping delicious sparkling wine, nibbling absolutely addicting sweet treats from Sugarlicious and nodding my head to Tyler Snow’s DJ set, I found my eye drawn time and again to the exquisitely soft, beautifully tailored and classically
The Black Ivy via picstopin.com
preppy sweaters from Shipley & Halmos. Taken in by the luxurious weight of the
pieces and the simple elegance of the designs, I found myself, surrounded by Vanessa’s
beautiful, edgy and modern collection, recollecting the days when preppy ruled the streets.
A Preppy Past
Though I was born in the 70s, I am truly a child of the 80s. I grew up during the era when teenagers and college students
James Spader as Steff in “Pretty in Pink.”
unironically tied sweaters around their shoulders when stepping out into a crisp fall day and when tennis whites or pastel polos with madras shorts far outnumbered t-shirts and jeans when it came time to meet friends for an early drink. Hair was feathered but always trimmed, jewelry was kept simple if worn at all, penny loafers and plaid were perfect for portraits and Pretty in Pink’s vexingly hot villain, Blaine, was right on trend.
Today’s Prep
While no one feathers their hair anymore (unless they never really stopped) and
Izzie Burch via unabashedlyprep.com
few children have nicknames like Muffy and Miffy, certain sartorial hallmarks of that era are still with us and will likely never fade. Just as a good leather satchel only grows better with age, so too will crew neck sweaters continue to pair perfectly with plaid button downs and scuffed leather boat shoes without socks, the sweaters only improving over time, with leather patches at the elbows and slightly worn cuffs.
We may now replace the word “preppy” with “classic” when we describe the perfect shrunken blue blazer or vintage shawl collar sweater but the influence, however quiet, of those years lives on, especially as
the mercury dips, the leaves change and the time comes to pull our sweaters out of their cedar chests and maybe, just maybe, around our shivering shoulders.
Shipley & Halmos Fall 2012 via shipley-halmos.com
Stop by Goldyn today to see incredible menswear from Shipley & Halmos and wonderful high end designs from T by Alexander Wang, Current/Elliot, Helmut Lang and many others, as well as vintage from Wishlist. Goldyn 2040 West 30th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80211 1.888.6Goldyn
Wishlist Vintage 240 S. Broadway 2nd Floor Denver, 80205 (720) 394-3094
Stop by Wishlist Vintage on Facebook for more preppy style inspiration.
Note: This post has been updated to reflect an error on the picture of James Spader, who was Steff and not Blaine in “Pretty in Pink.”
Preppy crew via trashness.com