With the corporate world of the 80s adorned in sleek powersuits, it was no wonder that the up-and-coming youths of the era would also want to dress for success. Designer labels were more than happy to oblige and it wasn’t long before clothing manufacturers such as Izod, Duck Head and Bass were offering an entire menagerie of attire for these future entrepreneurs – otherwise known as “preppies” (derived from the fact that many of these youths were students of prep schools.)

The preppie look was both conservative and colorful, with a whole palette of pastel colored shirts to appeal to any particular taste (as long as you happened to like pastel colors – but who didn’t in the era of Miami Vice?) With collars upturned and matched with a freshly-pressed pair of Duck Head pants, this was the only acceptable way to gain entrance into the status quo. And if you thought you could slip in with a shoddy JC Penney fox emblem on your shirt instead of the pricier Izod alligator, you were sorely mistaken – these inexpensive imitations were likely to subject one to ridicule and looks of disgust from any true preppy. It was all about the labels.

The preppy image still lives on today with overachieving prep students. Although it has been refined a bit over the years, the basic premise of pressed pants, polo shirts and penny loafers remains the style of choice for anyone with a desire to show that they are just as upwardly mobile as their adult counterparts.