Princess Diana, Supersloane!!
The Sloane Ranger Handbook (1982) is online
Michael Grynbaum—New York Times reporter, elite media gossipmonger, and, most importantly, husband of a Barnard graduate with red hair—texted me within minutes of my post on The Official Preppy Handbook: “Should your next newsletter be THE SLOANE RANGER HANDBOOK”? But of course. The Sloane Ranger Handbook (1982) came out two years after The Official Preppy Handbook. Capitalizing, no doubt, on its success. Both were written by journalists. Oh, intrepid outsiders!
I was pleased to find the PDF for the handbook on the Internet Archive. (There are a few pages smushed, as is the case with all books on the internet.) I’ve flipped through a copy or two over the years, but I must admit I’ve never pulled the trigger. Probably because I barely understood a word in the entire book. But now I’m married to an Englishman, so re-entoil I shall. (I swear to God English people think they’ve entered into some taxing cross cultural exchange when they marry “a cheap & vulgar American,” to quote Busby Berkeley, something only my husband does.)
I’ll start with the premise of The Sloane Ranger Handbook: Princess Diana, married one year before the publication of this book, is the ultimate Sloane. A Supersloane, if you will. She—and the rest of the Sloanes—heralded a new kind of upper middle class girl in London who adhered to the right…boundaries, so to speak. Physical, intellectual, imagined. It all comes down to “What Really Matters (WRM)…What Really Matters is usually left unsaid.”
WRM has 7 tentpoles: Background (“Family/school/university/job/connections should all be made clear”), The Past (“The Rangers’ favourite bit of the past is the English eighteenth century….Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Chippendale, Adam, Chatsworth, Lyon, Coutts, and Hoare”), Aristocracy (“Aristocrats prove it’s all worth while”), The Country (“Just saying you were brought up in the country stands for so many things”), The City (“the City is the last Empire, still controlling things everywhere, linking up with marvelous places like Hong Kong (you love dropping the names Keswick and Jardine Matheson”), The Army, The Status Quo (“you don’t believe in The Future the way other types do”).
I’ll just jump in here to say that furniture is the easiest shortcut to style, even if you literally take the short cut (the fake Thomas Sheraton furniture is quite fun). Ronald Phillips has the real stuff.
What to take away from Sloane Fashion: “They love the whole East”
Dressing as a Sloane is a war between one’s rustic roots (breeches, flower prints, sensible shoes) and romance (victorian heroine stuff, soft frills, touches of lace, high necks, the choker). Key colors: navy blue, husky green, and burgundy. I actually would like to see more wine colored things on the runway.