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‘True Prep’ draws a true crowd to NYC Brooks Brothers

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Pop your collars and pour a G&T, Muffy and Kip, ‘True Prep,’ the follow-up to the ‘The Official Preppy Handbook,’ is bringing the neo-prep set out in full force.

An invite-only book signing at Brooks Brothers’ Madison Avenue flagship in New York on Tuesday night (smack in the middle of New York Fashion Week) received some 570 RSVPs, and the night’s stack of books had dwindled from 400 to just three in less than an hour, according to our madras-clad mole. (The clothier, it should be noted, is featured heavily in the new book, and Brooks is pulling out all the stops, complete with

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window displays and similar events around the country.)

The enthusiastic crowd took the opportunity to don its preppiest threads. As we arrived a a clutch of young girls in pink Lilly Pulitzer patterns spilled out the door, and, once amid the sea of Sperry Top-Siders, all-over embroidered trousers and navy-blue blazers made us feel like we’d fallen into our own version of ‘The Hot Tub Time Machine.’

Smack in the middle of the grosgrain gaggle were authors Lisa Birnbach and Chip Kidd, pens a-blazing for a line that wound through the length of the store, some holding as many as four or five copies.

We didn’t get a chance for more than passing niceties with the lady of the hour (we have a West Coast sit-down planned when she rolls into L.A. next week) but did manage to catch up with designer Thom Browne, who is featured in the book. Browne, who isn’t showing this week (he moved his runway show to Paris this season), isn’t exactly relaxing. He told us he’s currently working on the first women’s collection under his own name (his Black Fleece collaboration with Brooks Brothers includes women’s), which he plans to show in February here in New York. And, on our way out, we chatted with ‘Mad Men’ costume designer Janie Bryant, in town for fashion week.

Then it was out the door and back to our regularly scheduled fashion week, already in progress.

-- Adam Tschorn in New York

Photos, from top: The crowd at Brooks Brothers for a Sept. 14, 2010, ‘True Prep’ book signing. ‘True Prep’s’ Lisa Birnbach, Chip Kidd and a trio of nattily attired attendees: from left, K. Cooper Ray, Carter Peabody and Chris Wallace. Credit: Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times

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