Sloane Ranger
{{Use British English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{short description|United Kingdom subculture/stereotype}}
In the United Kingdom, a Sloane Ranger, or simply a Sloane, is a stereotypical upper-middle or upper-class person, typically although not necessarily a young one, who embodies a very particular upbringing and outlook. The Sloane Ranger style is a uniform, effortless, and unambitious although sophisticated one. Its counterpart in the US is the preppy style and in France is bon chic bon genre.
The term is a pun based on references to Sloane Square, a location in Chelsea, London, famed for the wealth of its residents and frequenters, and the television character The Lone Ranger.
Origin
The coinage came from Martina (Tina) Margetts,{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3634284/Ann-Barr-The-woman-who-invented-Sloanes.html|title=Ann Barr: The woman who invented Sloanes|first=Cassandra|last=Jardine|date=4 October 2007 }} a sub-editor on Harpers & Queen who worked on the{{explain|date=February 2024}} 1975 article.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/dec/03/architecture.communities|title=The battle for Sloane Square|first=Stephen|last=Bayley|newspaper=The Observer |date=3 December 2006|via=The Guardian}} In her early twenties she had found herself amongst this social group while undertaking a course on fine art at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Initially, the term "Sloane Ranger" was used mostly in reference to women, a particular archetype being Diana, Princess of Wales. However, the term now usually includes men. A male Sloane has also been referred to as a "Rah" and by the older term "Hooray Henry".{{cite news|title=On the trail of London's Sloane Rangers|work=The New York Times|date=25 March 1984|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9C04EFD81139F936A15750C0A962948260}}
Although Sloanes are nowadays supposedly more widely spread and amorphous than in the past, they are still perceived to socialise in the expensive areas of west London, most notably King's Road,{{cite news|last=Slot|first=Owen|title=Same Sloanes, new Range: Ten years after their handbook was a bestseller, Owen Slot finds Caroline and Henry are still doing OK, Yah|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/same-sloanes-new-range-ten-years-after-their-handbook-was-a-bestseller-owen-slot-finds-caroline-and-henry-are-still-doing-ok-yah-1397455.html|work=The Independent|access-date=20 December 2011|date=2 January 1994}} Fulham Road, Kensington High Street, and other areas of Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham. The pubs and nightclubs in these areas are popular with Sloanes, {{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} in particular the White Horse pub, known as the "Sloaney Pony" in Fulham, and Admiral Codrington, known as "The Cod", in Chelsea.
In 2015, Peter York argued that the Sloane population has been winnowed and that Sloanes were more likely to be leading the British trend to downward social mobility.{{Cite web|url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/sound-and-vision/the-fall-of-the-sloane-rangers-made-in-chelsea|title=The fall of the Sloane Rangers - Prospect Magazine}} In 2023, Tatler announced that it was time for the Sloane Rangers to "step aside" for the Bopeas, or Bohemian Peasants, a term and social theory describing downwardly mobile elite embracing a "rural life of making, brewing, fermenting and foraging".{{Cite web |last=Delaney |first=Evie |date=2023-11-17 |title=On England's pleasant pastures seen: Rural rules the roost in the new class of bohemian peasants or 'Bopeas' |url=https://www.tatler.com/article/bopea-cultural-movement-bohemian-peasants-king-charles-rewilding-fermenters |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=Tatler |language=en-GB}}
Sloanes
The following people have been considered by some to be Sloanes:
{{cite news
| last = Armstrong
| first = Lisa
| title = Just don't say yah... OK?
| pages = Section 2 pp4-5
| publisher = Times Newspapers Ltd
| url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-2553856_1,00.html
| date = 19 January 2007
| access-date = 19 January 2006 }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
- James Hewitt, Army officer and lover of Diana, Princess of Wales{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3668609/Sloane-Rangers-adapt-to-survive.html |title=Sloane Rangers adapt to survive |publisher=Telegraph |date=18 October 2007 |access-date=8 July 2013}}
- Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
- Trinny and Susannah{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/06/1033538849446.html |title=Hooray, Henry, the Sloane tribe is back |publisher=theage.com.au |date=7 October 2002 |access-date=8 July 2013}}
- Catherine, Princess of Wales{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/9001529/Kate-Middleton-and-the-rise-of-the-Sloane-Ranger.html |title=Kate Middleton and the rise of the Sloane Ranger |date=9 January 2012 |publisher=Telegraph |access-date=17 October 2022}}
- Sarah, Duchess of York{{cite web|last=Mount |first=Harry |url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100040675/sarah-ferguson-the-sloane-that-time-forgot/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304110116/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100040675/sarah-ferguson-the-sloane-that-time-forgot/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 March 2016 |title=Sarah Ferguson: the Sloane that time forgot – Telegraph Blogs |publisher=Blogs.telegraph.co.uk |date=23 May 2010 |access-date=8 July 2013}}
See also
{{Portal|1980s}}
- Bon chic bon genre
- Bourgeois personality
- British country clothing
- Class conflict
- Fuerdai
- I.J.G.B.
- International Debutante Ball
- Sloane Street
- Trixie (slang)
- Upper Class Twit of the Year (parody)
- Young fogey
- Bopea, or "Bohemian Peasants", proclaimed by Tatler to be the Sloane Rangers' successors
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wikiquote|Sloane Ranger}}
- [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/story/0,,2093056,00.html "Return of the Sloanes"] by Jeremy Langmead, The Guardian, 1 June 2007
- [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/16/the-return-of-poshness "Tory chic: the Return of Poshness"] by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 16 December 2009
Category:History of subcultures
Category:Slang terms for women
Category:Social class in the United Kingdom
Category:Social class subcultures
Category:Stereotypes of upper class women