Her costume is a calculated evocation of high WASP culture, the very same culture the fashion world is now embracing.

The series is a parody of the archetypes of 1950s American suburban life, modern-day WASP culture and Christianity.

It's not for nothing that Mr. Gurney has been, by now tiresomely, labeled the official chronicler of WASP culture.

WASP culture long disdained money lending as a way of making money.

I now teach and reside at the intellectual citadel of WASP culture, Yale University.

Still, Mr. Gurney is saddled with the label of chronicler - and critic - of WASP culture.

But my background is that WASP culture, and it is fascinating and hysterically funny to recreate it.

"I think I have pretty much mined this vein," he says of the WASP culture.

Southwestern Connecticut, a wealthy area that could be considered a stronghold of WASP culture and the article of clothing often associated with them.

What we're seeing, in a way, is a backlash against the WASP culture that once made jokes about the immigrants.