The preppy problem

Until fairly recently, I was deathly afraid of the white oxford. Unless I was pairing it up with a jacket and tie in more formal settings, it reminded me of those creepy family photos we’ve all seen where everyone is wearing identical shirts--95 percent of the time, white oxfords. (I have a similarly irrational reason for not wearing blue oxfords, but that is another, more incendiary story).

Image from Heavy Tweed Jacket.

Context is everything, of course, and in my particular case, that by which I was surrounded during my formative years is always going to win.  But such are the tribulations of this age of “business casual.” Because the basic profile of the polos, oxfords, and khakis once loved by Handbook  readers far and wide has been liberally borrowed from to comprise the meaningless, sterile uniform of the service economy, trendsetters would have us believe we must cease and desist en masse.

Contemporary women have been particularly victimized by this phenomenon, painted as they already are into a corner where even a single component of a traditional, casual ensemble is vilified as "frumpy," "boxy," "bulky," or otherwise suspect. It's quite possible the real reason even women with attractive waistlines seldom tuck their shirts in is not because it’s a bad look, but because post-modern circumstances force them to answer questions about where they wait tables. Personally, I find it a sad state of affairs.  From those halcyon days of Etienne Aigner mania thirty years ago to the present day, a stylish belt around a trim waist has always gotten my attention.



A rare contemporary example of an old-school approach, demonstrated by SCE of Summer Wind.

No, Toto, we're not in 1980 anymore. But no one of any gender should ever be made afraid of the classics. They were here before those weird portraits, and they will still be here after the word “tunic” is no longer in the Lands’ End catalog. Let us reclaim them with pride. We'll never look back and say, "What was I thinking?"



Oxford, khakis, and a boxy blazer? Quelle dommage!

Spirit of '81

This week, something a little more appropriate for the weather.

Can you hear me now?

Of course you can, because it always works. If you want to find me outside the office, you'll have to go through this.

In trouble again



Image from HD Car Wallpapers

More bad tidings arrived from the automobile industry today, courtesy of Yahoo! News. After a last-minute reprieve following its disastrous relationship with GM, it seems Saab, a long-standing staple of preppy garages, is once again an endangered species:

The first Saab car was launched in 1949 by Swedish industrial firm Svenska Aeroplan. The firm produced a series of sedans and coups, the flagship of which was the 900 series, released in 1978. About one million of these would eventually be sold. Saab's engineering reputation and the rise in its international sales attracted GM to buy half the company in 1989 and the balance in 2000. Saab's problem, which grew under the management of the world's No.1 automobile manufacturer, was that it was never more than a niche brand in an industry dominated by very large players such as Ford and Chevrolet. It did not build very inexpensive cars like VW did, or expensive sports cars as Porsche did. Saab's models were, in price and features, up against models from the world's largest car companies that sold hundreds of thousands of units each year. Saab also did not have a wide number of models to suit different budgets and driver tastes. GM decided to jettison the brand in late 2008, and the small company quickly became insolvent. Saab finally found a buyer in high-end car maker Spyker which took control of the company last year. Spyker quickly ran low on money because only 32,000 Saabs were sold in 2010. Spyker turned to Chinese industrial investors for money. Pang Da Automobile agreed to take an equity stake in the company. But, the agreement is not binding, and with a potential of global sales which are still below 50,000 a year based on manufacturing and marketing operations, and demand, Saab is no longer a financially viable brand.

I must say, I find the article’s implication that Saab is trying to compete in the same market as Ford and Chevrolet rather odd. That may have been GM’s intent (and indeed, some unfortunate-looking Saab sedans have been produced that are virtually indistinguishable from a Chevy Malibu), but it certainly was never the Swedes’. And have you priced new Volkswagens lately? Sure, they're mass-produced in the United States now, but anyone who's paying attention knows they abandoned the "economy" market long ago.

I'm far from being any kind of business guru, but I believe the more likely explanation is that Volvo has simply been more successful at cornering Saab’s segment of the market. Three big factors may have a lot to do with this:

1.      While Saab was entangled with GM, Volvo entered into a relationship with Ford which, while somewhat stormy and ultimately unsuccessful in the long term, undoubtedly resulted in a much better product.

2.      Volvo’s massive North American dealer network.

3.      In spite of items 1 and 2, Volvo has remained true to its roots by building its cars exclusively in Sweden, and retained control of the product by exporting them “dead”—that is, with all systems non-functional until their governing software is loaded at the incoming port.

From what I've observed rolling around the streets of my little corner of the world, it also seems that BMW and Mercedes have come to dominate the high end of the luxury market, which has shrunk considerably. With Volvo and Volkswagen occupying the underlying rung on the pricing ladder, there remains little room for Saab to operate in the 21st-century environment.

All that being said, even if production of new Saabs should cease, I personally suspect the brand will not follow Peugeot into stateside oblivion. There seem to be enough concentrated pockets of Saab loyalists

throughout the United States who are sufficiently connected in this digital age to keep some of the existing parts manufacturers and other support systems going until the specialty market has a chance to establish itself.

I certainly hope so. A classic convertible is on my bucket list.  :)

Image from Saab History.

Poise

This is the last outfit in the world anyone should be thinking about just now. But it's also one of the last good drawings I have.

Punahou School '79

Barack Obama and friends at prep school in Hawaii.  Doesn't the girl in front look great?  :)

Tretorn: an advertising retrospective

1978



1981



1983. I think I have the yellow sweater.



1987



1988



Hi-test

One of my favorite haunts is a small cafe in downtown Staunton, Virginia called Blue Mountain Coffees. On Saturday mornings, particularly during Farmer's Market season, it is the de facto standard in community meeting places, the place to see and be seen, and my friends and I have made it an almost-weekly ritual.

If coffee isn't your cup of tea, there are lots of alternatives.

A little bit preppy and a little bit crunchy, Blue Mountain's vibe strikes a delicate balance that I find appealing. Owner Sarah Butterfield and her staff are attentive, fast, and know their regulars well, especially those of us who are fairly predictable...

Cinnamon raisin with cream cheese, please!

Coffee is likewise excellent, and is rated at 93 octane.

Blue Mountain is located in Staunton's Wharf District, the long-standing and analagous appelation for a row of 19th-century warehouses near the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad station and freight house. Occupied by a variety of upscale specialty shops and restaurants, the area is long on fun and atmosphere--particularly if you are interested, as I am, in the district's original raison detre...

Watch your step at Staunton's Wharf. They still move some big stuff around.

Checking out the band, '73

Extraordinary people

University of Denver, early 1970s: Condoleezza Rice and Alpha Chi Omega. From the memoir Extraordinary Ordinary People.

In vino Veritas

This past Saturday before the Volvo show, I had the privilege of joining a group of Mary Baldwin College alumnae and their friends for a wine tasting and and lunch at Veritas Vineyards near Afton, Virginia.

As a relative neophyte to the world of wine, there’s probably little I can share that most of my regular
readers don’t already know. But I must say, the tour was remarkably educational.

For example, we all know that wines can differ from year to year, due to the variables inherent in growing and harvesting grapes. But that does not necessarily mean that the end product is purely the luck of the draw.  At a good winery, a great deal of thought and planning goes into creating different varieties each year, and many factors, not just grapes, come into play.

Wine barrels, for instance, are more than just containers. They also play a role as flavoring agents, which can vary depending on the source and age of the wood. This enables the winemaker to control the properties of a given product to a limited degree, as does the temperature of storage areas. Even the science of taste buds, and the ways in which they expand and contract under certain conditions, is taken into consideration.



My personal favorite from the tour: their 2010 Viognier.

All that being said, the true joy of a Virginia wine tasting, of course, comes from enjoying the company of friends in the beautiful settings where the product is made…

Swede love

I have always loved cars. From my childhood fascination with the wares of 1960s Detroit, which I never outgrew, to a later appreciation of the nuances of imports, my shameless reverence of all that rolls on four wheels is well-known. And as with so many things, much of that love affair was forged in the search for survivors, and the lessons they can teach us about time and place. Saturday, the quest took me to Charlottesville, cameras in hand, for a trip down those afore-mentioned leafy streets of yesteryear, at a vintage Volvo show.

Yesterday’s gathering was the first of its kind at its venue. Liza Borches, president of  Volvo of Charlottesville, confessed to some initial anxiety about attendance, of classic Volvo owners as well as viewers. But several local enthusiasts, including some of the dealership’s own staff, eagerly came forward to display their treasures, which in turn encouraged others. “That red one was just driving by,” Liza said, referencing a 1960s-era sedan. "But after (the owner) took a look around, he said, ‘Sure, I’ll enter!’”

Entries were wide and varied. From the grocery getters...

...to the somewhat more exotic.

From the sixties...

...the seventies...

...and the eighties.

If British Mod is your cup of tea, there was this specimen used in the Roger Moore TV show The Saint.

This is technology even I can understand.

No pre-1990 wagons appeared to be entered in the show as such. This one just happened to be around.

It’s clear from talking to Liza that she and her family love Volvos and the people who drive them. “So which one is yours?,” she asked me before I left.

“Actually, the silver V70 way over there, which is not an antique,” I admitted.

“But hey, it’s a Volvo!,” came the cheerful reply.