Looking like someone who'd save

The New York TImes has a great article about the much neglected theme of the old school conservatism, wary of mass culture, and how it's been poached by those who only *dress* like they were wary of mass culture:

Meanwhile the actual lifestyle choices, like living in New Canaan and sending your children to boarding school, lost none of their charm. But I believe that living that way became more of a conscious choice than it had been. If nothing else, the preppy lifestyle got expensive: private school tuition, handsome real estate, a couple of club memberships and you're deep into millionaire country. You don't just happen, these days, to make or have that kind of money.

Preppies had money, but not necessarily a lot, and they wanted to hang onto what was there, to turn it over to the next generation. Hence their often-overlooked cheapness; in preppy precincts of Connecticut in the 1970's a pair of Lucite salad tongs was a perfectly respectable wedding present. Their curious wardrobes were formed by the same instincts: Madras jackets might and did go out of mainstream fashion but that was no reason to stop wearing them.

We're All Preppies Now, by Carol McD Wallace, Published October 24, 2005