Disaffected Prep

"I want to go to Princeton," said Amory. "I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes."

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

There is a lot on the internet for men's collegiate style in the 1960's - think of Take Ivy for instance - but very little about the girls (of that which I'm aware). I suppose this is natural, many elite colleges had yet to go coeducational at that time.

So it was great when I stumbled upon these images from the treasure trove of the Life Google Archive, documenting Princeton University's first "coeds" in 1969. There are some great shots here, and my woman's fashion correspondent (my girlfriend) notes that several of the outfits could still pass today - such as the dress & gladiator sandals combo. This isn't in my wheelhouse when it comes to fashion knowledge, but I think the images are fascinating nonetheless.

A few selected images below. The rest can be found on Google's Life Archive.

Labels: fashion, princeton, take ivy