Let’s see how much of the Trad&Prep Encyclopedia you’ve mastered with a Pop Quiz. Question: Who is the DEFINITIVE American shoemaker? Answer: Alden. Explanation: That should’ve been easy, no? Of that iconic list of shoe manufacturers – each quite innovative to the evolution of American fashion in their own right – only one satisfies all […]
Spring & Summer, 2015
Calling on me like a young OG. I’m a classic man. Selected outfits from late Spring to early August ’15. Continuing a major theme of CollegeTrad, this article includes examples of Rule #10 (proving that nice clothes can be affordable if you know how to shop!) Café lunch with lady friend. One of my favorite […]
Filson Bags
In preparation for last October’s weekend excursion, I bought my first (and probably my last) “Weekender” – a dressed down bag meant for elective quick turnarounds or as a carry-on for exotic outbounds. Something sturdy that can be easily thrown in the trunk of a Harvard Boy‘s vintage Mercedes station wagon. Enough volume to house […]
Combatant Gentleman: A CollegeTrad Exclusive Review
Editor’s Note: Keeping to my moral compass in benefit of you the reader, I have only recently started entertaining third-party offerings or sponsorships. My “closed door policy” to Industry was originally to ensure that my writings remain pure in personal opinion for my – and my alone – interpretation of what I consider to be […]
Wardrobe Maintenance
I had a few inquires about my own clothing collection, specifically how I take care of my garments. As such – for when the masquerade ball bids adieu and yours truly departs to his solemn dark cave; the cape hung, the walking stick mounted, and the mask shed to reveal a beastly hideousness kept self-imposingly […]
Tony’s Column: Ralph v. The Brethren
Ralph Lauren innovated the concept of fashionable lifestyle branding. This video is a perfect example of the idealistic imagery Ralph is selling (and we find ourselves enthusiastically buying!) One of our readers had recently emailed me with a personal essay of his own opinionated narrative. It is simply too good to not share with you […]
Joys of Hunting, Part II
First posted a few years ago, this updated editorial celebrates our continuous sartorial Hunt of Patience & Virtue, in the endearing fortitude of Rule #10. Looking good does not have to cost an arm and a leg and a kidney and half your soul. When you want a particular item, no matter how rare and […]
The Engine-Turned Plaque Belt
One of the most headache-inducing themes that I see from clansmen who are unknowingly part of the Brainless Masses Tribe (a proud native people who make up a sizable population, where common behavior includes cultural propensities for loving guns, eating burgers, and watch adult males in tights and helmets take out human aggression on a […]
All in the Name: Glossary
As I have stumbled upon developing my own Tolkien-esque epic universe with this blog, which started with a big bang four years ago, and has now expanded and cooled to a twisted, dangerous, and black hole-filled mess that it is today; I wanted to make things easier for you in reading my postings by offering […]
Bonobos F/W Suit Collection ’14
Mr. Jason Bornstein, the online media manager at Bonobos contacted me last week to see if I’d be willing to spread the word on their newest suit and sportcoat collection for the upcoming Fall and Winter 2014 season, set to debut in the coming week. Typically I am hesitant about these kinds of marketing blitz […]
Tony’s Column: How CT is setup
Since I seem to have more and more to say these days, I’ve decided to add yet another ongoing subset to CollegeTrad’s growing list of editorial features, housed here in the Editorial section. These columns are purely introspective and/or meta-layered in prose, and are not finite in followups as I think of more to say […]
Trad Mannerisms: To Cuff or Not to Cuff?
We owe an awesome deal of our heritage to those fogey old farts across the puddle. Afterall, the United Kingdom damn near wrote the entire textbook that we have been studiously absorbing our tradly and preppy lessons from, right here in the confines of Haberdashery Hall Rm 103, as a Michael Caine lookalike adorning horn-rimmed […]
Vintage Campus USA
Jeebus. Impossibly Cool, eh? These strapping young gentlemen pictured above represent our forefathers who paved the way to our present rendition of traditional American dress. Before Fratty. Before Preppy. There was only Trad. TNSIL. The Princetonian. The Ivy League Look. The photos above were taken from TinTin’s uploads of his copy of the original Take […]
Generations of Style: Continued
Warning: potential man tears ahead. In Memoriam Every Trad Family has a loyal companion and dear friend. Two weeks ago, my mother noticed our family dog was acting differently. He stopped eating and drinking quite suddenly on Saturday, and his hind legs became very weak. He had been suffering from Chronic Heart Disease for the […]
Duck Head rises from the ashes (Part Deuce)
Some of you will be able to recognize one of my more subliminal but enduring themes of College Trad: my continuing education and promotion of tried-and-true Trad & Prep brands. These are the kind of niche labels that fly under the mainstream radar, and yet carry with them a rich tradition in authenticity and loyal […]
Spring & Summer, 2014
Official party anthem of Summer ’14 I apologize for the absence of updated porn stash pics (…completely disregarded Winter ’13…), so finally here are a few select outfits I have worn in the later parts of spring through the current first half of summer for your inspiration. Keeping to the mission statement of CollegeTrad, I […]
Swim Trunks
I had received a few messages from you guys asking for swimwear ideas for the upcoming summer season. Unfortunately, I am too late catching you before heading out with the Brothers on your Spring Break road trip from Columbia to that coastal SEC stronghold that is the one and only Gulf Shores. But we’ll have […]
St. John’s College vs. The US Naval Academy
It is always fun to take in a town’s whimsical festivities and quirks. In Annapolis, Maryland, one such oddball tradition spans three decades of sportsmanship rivaly: between the brass shining, honor loving, All-American Midshipmen from the prestigious U.S. Naval Academy, and a group of snotty rich kids high on marijuana or dad’s card spending limit […]
Ode to a Mad, Mad Man: Don Draper’s Final Season
Beautifully sung by pre-Girls actress and my future wife, Allison Williams Nearly seven years ago, AMC – then, a struggling network known more for showing your grandma’s favorite classic films than for the nuanced, game changing entertainment we know today, with the likes of a meth-dealing former high school teacher, survivalists living in a dystopian […]
Trad Mannerisms: Integrating Maturity into your Look
Taking the old and making it young You already know I write for you, an audience of like-minded peers who are roughly at or around our age of, say 16 to 30 (the range moves as I grow older and you grow younger!) Within this ever changing late high school to post graduate formula, there […]