Yankee Doodle Style



The well-known song "Yankee Doodle" that Americans so much enjoy, was in fact a song composed by the British soldiers during the hostilities leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Having gotten to know each other as allies during the French-Indian war, the "Redcoats" were quick to point out the inferior style dress of the American colonists. Rather than feel humiliated, the colonists realized that the song was pretty catchy.  Here is the most popular verse and it's meaning:
Yankee Doodle ("doodle"="fool") went to town, riding on a pony. (instead of on a horse, like an elegant person would)
Stuck a feather in his cap (trying to make his clothing more classy) and called it macaroni. (slang word at the time for something very stylish) .
Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy ("dandy" = pretentious "wannabe" who dressed the part)
Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy. (In other words learn to dance like the Europeans do and maybe you will get lucky. It also put into question the chastity of the colonial women)
Tri-cornered hats off (feather in it or not) to some of our favorite American fashion designers! Marc Jacobs,Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Anna Sui, Donna Karan, Bill Blass, Kevan Hall, Tracy Reese and all the independent designers of America.  Happy Independence Day!

Photo Credit: http://www.istockphoto.com/keeweeboy
References:
http://www.cfda.com/
http://sociallady.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/yankee-doodle-dandy-a-history-on-fashion/
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/songs/yankee_doodle.html
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/yankee.html