in praise of prep

I’d like to introduce you all to our newest blogger at Painfully Hip, and believe me, we scored big. A renaissance girl of sorts, Mary Catherine is an excellent blogger, amazingly crafty (the handmade hats, headbands and delightfully macabre dolls in her Etsy store will make your credit card shudder), a talented actress (recently employed by 30 Rock, Flight of the Concords and Broadway, baby), and (wait for it!) a Thrift Star of the Day. Too boot, she’s completely fucking adorable, sweet as all get-out, keen as Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, a great cook, and has a closet I could happily DIE in.
Thanks Mary Catherine!

-Amber

It’s actually an odd thing for me to say because I *officially* do not like anything remotely related to anything that is related to preppy-ness. I immediately think pastel izod with turned-up collar/cookie-cutter housewives at a country club/the villain in Karate Kid (and every other 80s movie for that matter)/etc. You get my drift. And so it has been with great gusto that I’ve avoided what I consider to be the polar opposite of my fashion ideal. I treasure imagination, creativity, individuality and uniqueness when it comes to clothes. To me, being preppy concedes the “me” in favor of looking just exactly like a copy of the “we.” No good.

And I have always mentally marked certain labels as preppy and thus, not interesting. (Anne Klein, anyone?) One of these being Burberry. I am not a fashion thoroughbred, so I could be totally wrong on this, but that’s where I always filed it, mentally. Preppy and boring. Could it be that damn plaid? I swear if I see ONE more beige, black, white and red plaid ANYTHING–violence will ensue. It’s the most ubiquitous thing in life right after the movie trailer for “He’s Just Not That Into You.” It’s the cockroach of visuals as far as I’m concerned. It helped only slightly that Kate Moss did the advertisements. Slightly.

So imagine my surprise when I fell head-over-heels in love with this little vintage number…:

….and saw it was Burberry…??

(hat: Banana Republic years ago. purse: h&m. gloves: UO clearance. tights: ??. shoes: h&m this year)

I found it in the Etsy shop Arrogant Loves Original, it was very reasonably priced and I’ve worn it 3 times in one week.

To me, this dress is not anti-thetical to all I hold dear in fashion. In fact–it’s pretty great. Should I re-file Burberry?? Or maybe I now like the preppy thing?? Either way, I stand corrected. If this dress be preppy, then so am I