The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook
When The Official Preppy Handbook hit the shelves in 1980, the east coast American sub culture had flourished long enough, and aroused enough curiosity, to commence poking fun at it. For those familiar, it was such a hit that is spawned a sequel of sorts some 30 years later. On the heels of the The Official Preppy Handbook's popularity, England turned out a handbook of their own in 1982, The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook. The approach feels familiar, riffing on its predecessor down to the title itself. While hard to find, we serendipitously came across a copy in New York while vintage shopping.
What is a Sloane, you ask? The moniker refers to a stereotype in the UK of the young, upper class, or upper-middle-class who share distinctive and common lifestyle traits not all too different from American preppies. The exemplar female Sloane Ranger was considered to be Lady Diana Spencer before marrying The Prince of Wales. These fun illustrations of the various Sloane uniforms from the book highlight the nuances of dressing the part. It’s all quite humorous...yet simultaneously quite serious.
