Seven Sisters Style: Fashionista Must-Read

© Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look by Rebecca C. Tuite, Rizzoli New York, 2014

If you are going to read just one fashion book this spring, then Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look by Rebecca C. Tuite should be it!

Released early April 2014 and available now in both brick and click bookstores, the SEVEN SISTERS STYLE celebrates the all-American preppy style pioneered by the women of the Seven Sisters Colleges (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley), and its twentieth-century evolution, from its on-campus foundations and creation of a collegiate “uniform,” to its enduring legacy which can be summarized with the phrase “From Barnard to Bergdorf.”

“The Seven Sisters look is not only responsible for generating trends in American casual sportswear that endure, but also for capturing the unique sensibility of young college women. Universal to each part of the Seven Sisters style, from their masculine-inspired, on-campus separates to their prim off-campus look, was a spirit of rebellion, ambition, determination, intelligence, and independence,” said author Rebecca C. TuiteWas a Seven Sisters girl an East Coast Ivy Leaguer? Was she a geek or a goddess? Was she radical or conservative? Was she a tomboy? Was she an American princess? In many ways, she was all of these things and so much more.

The style developed by the Seven Sisters—a prestigious group of American colleges whose members include such fashion icons as Katharine Hepburn, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Ali MacGraw, and Meryl Streep— made preppy clothes de rigueur for young women everywhere, heralding a new brand of American grace.

Elite and prestigious, Seven Sisters Style is synonymous with a collective sheen of exclusivity, intelligence, and a way of dressing that would become a marker of national pride and status all over the world.

Admission to each school came with an unofficial handbook of qualities the student was to embody, and part of that was maintaining the look that had come to reflect each school’s signature culture: Mount Holyoke girls were supposedly fresh-faced, conservative, and traditional, while Wellesley and Smith were known for educating the high-achieving athletic and literary beauties; Barnard girls were more urbane, possessing a sophisticated air fuelled by their proximity to New York City; Bryn Mawr and Vassar girls were recognized for their politically radical, outspoken natures and fondness for alternative style, while Radcliffe women were considered to be the most academically astute, sensible, and hardworking.

Responsible for popularizing everything from casual jeans, baggy shirts, bermuda shorts, blazers, soft
Shetland sweaters and saddle shoes, to sleek suiting, kidskin gloves, crinolines, kitten heels and cashmere; the women of the Seven Sisters perfected a flair that spoke to a splendidly aspirational lifestyle, filled with education, travel and excitement.

SEVEN SISTERS STYLE celebrates a timeless and internationally ubiquitous look—seen on and off the runway, in Hollywood, and in popular culture—that continues to be a source of fascination and inspiration, forever remaining in style.

SEVEN SISTERS STYLE
By Rebecca C. Tuite
Rizzoli New York
Hardcover / 7½” x 10″
/ 144 pages / 100 color and black-and-white photographs
ISBN: 978-0-8478-4217-9
PRICE: $35.00 US & CAN
PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2014

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