Preppy in the 80s

I recently opened a box of old photographs and college annuals and blew off the dust.  The images here are all from the 80s, an era that I fondly recall as the days of hair.

1983 –  This photo was taken just after my 17th birthday, and I would be going off to college the next year.  I’m wearing a pair of white cotton pants (white ducks), a navy surcingle belt, a light blue button down shirt and a rep tie.  I have a blue blazer draped over my shoulder and a hand in my pocket, stock gestures that class photographers back then encouraged.  Do they still do that?  If so, someone should tell them to stop!  It doesn’t look nonchalant, but rather silly.

 1986 – Class photograph from my sophomore year of college.  Wow, where do I begin?  The hair was huge!  My wife refers to this as helmet hair.  The tortoise shell glasses were also huge, a style trend in the 80s, and should have come equipped with windshield wipers.  My smile was David Letterman-esque.  I’m wearing a tweed sport coat, a button down shirt (starched from the looks of things) and a rep tie.

1986 – With friends in the courtyard of Silliman College during the Summer Studies Program at Yale.  I’d changed to a smaller pair of tortoise rim glasses.  I’m wearing a polo shirt and a pair of Bermuda shorts.

1988 – Senior year of college.  Preppy on steroids in this photo just a week or so before graduation.  Madras plaid button down shirt, Bermuda shorts and a ribbon belt with a sailboat motif.  Yeah, those were the 80s.