1-18-2013
Torn Asunder
The significance of locker loops in Ivy style dating
Ah, the locker loop.
While the tiny piece of fabric on the back of your oxford’s origins are as hazy as last Sunday’s brunch, it certainly has an interesting albeit semi-violent history.Presumably influenced by East Coast sailors who hung their shirts on ship hooks, the locker loop found its way onto oxfords and the gentleman’s wardrobe. Fast-forward to the early sixties and locker loops became known as “fruit loops” and integrated within Ivy dating culture.
In those desperately bleak years before Facebook messaging or emojis, young ladies would rip the locker loops off the shirts of boys they took a hankering to. On the flipside, ladies would be ‘pinned’ i.e. wear her beau’s fraternity or club pin to signal she wasn’t sharing her fountain soda’s with anyone else. If a gent’s lady friend hadn’t casually maimed his shirt he would take it upon himself to either cut or completely remove the locker loop. Sometimes mid-cut he would pause, thinking he heard the mournful cry of a Golden Fleece in the distance, then carry on because he was going to be late for the drive-in.
Although we think there are better ways of showing your loyalty than purposefully damaging your OCBD or God forbid a non-iron, it’s a quaint sentiment rooted in collegiate history.
Still, flowers are cheaper.
