The Official Preppy Handbook (1980) is a satirical reference guide edited by Lisa Birnbach and written by Jonathan Roberts, Carol McD. Wallace, Mason Wiley, and Birnbach. Lisa Birnbach satirizes a prep’s ideal family lifestyle, and humorously advises readers how to pick, interview, and gain acceptance into a prep school. The book then wittily discusses “the best years of your life” – a prep’s college years. With tongue in cheek, Birnbach elucidates which college courses to take, how to design one’s dorm room, and how to party at college.

In Chapters 5 and 6, the book explains the prep adult life as first a “young executive”, and later as a retired adult in “the Country Club Years”. Birnbach jokingly educates readers on navigating a cocktail party, networking, and vacationing.

The Official Preppy Handbook also teaches readers how to dress preppily. In chapter 4, Birnbach emphasizes the importance of appearing effortless, preppy and casual, writing, “socks are frequently not worn on sporting occasions or on social occasions for that matter. This provides a year round beachside look that is so desirable that comfort may be thrown aside”.

Effect

The book's reflections on young urban professional culture inspired Arthur Cinader, the founder of the J. Crew clothing line. However, as universities became less exclusive as a result of economic and cultural shifts, preppiness as a subculture became less exclusive. Preppy fashion adopted new nuances, and preppy culture has become more inclusive. By writing The Official Preppy Handbook, Lisa Birnbach helped to further democratize preppy fashion and culture. Birnbach explained in her introduction that the handbook is not intended as an exclusive text describing preppiness as subculture reserved for “an elite minority lucky enough to attend prestigious private schools”. Rather, the Handbook was written as a guidepost for the revival of the preppy style. It shared the secrets of the preppy code, making preppy seem “neat, attractive, and suddenly attainable”.

See also

  • The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, a roughly contemporaneous British book on a similar subject

References

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  • Review of The Official Preppy Handbook by Dave Berry<!-- compare with the bio at https://web.archive.org/web/20140727123810/http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dave_berry.htm before adding any links --> on College Confidential ()
  • Speaking Profile Lisa Birnbach's profile and lecture topics on the Random House Speakers Bureau
  • —Op-Ed reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the book's publication.