(n) plural. we're talkin' serious knick-knacks, tchotchkes, trinkets, gewgaws, bric-a-brac, usually in wide array, impressive splendor and/or great quantity.

Preps are offspring of the old Anglo-American ruling class, whether or not they rule today. Preps once ruled North and South. Their offspring can be be found in select enclaves in Texas and California, but will always be aware of their roots in the British colonies where their ancestors were Royal Governors, Judges, Presidents of Harvard or Yale, Declaration of Independence signatories or other useful things such as merely rich. Preps have long driveways. Public display of wealth is not prep. Preps do not drive ferrarris. Prep men do not wear Italian clothes. Ever (except Gucci loafers).
Preps have always been preps. As far as clothes its a manner of dressing that you are born into. Siblings raid each other's or their parents closets for prep clothes. All generations dress the same with minor variations. Old prep clothes are better than new. Preps are not nouveau. Your dad bought his suits at Brooks brothers or had them made bespoke by his tailor. If you are lucky he may have some nice English tweeds you may come into and shirts with double cuffs from somewhere around St. James's in London, but American preps are generally much more casual than their counterparts in the UK or on the continent. Your prep dad taught you how to shoot (guns are prep). You learnt how to swim, ride, and sail (water and horses are prep). Someday you will get dad's very thin gold watch and you will wear it on a striped grosgrain band just like he did. You inherit your grandfather's thin gold cu...

v., to overdecorate, to embellish an object with excessive gewgaws, to not know when to stop with the ruffles, ruching and ribbons. From the design ethos of Santino Rice on the Bravo TV show 'Project Runway'.

Herdware is absolutely any personal 'decorative' item or product which may (or may not) have been genuinely cool, fashionable or different once, but is now overwhelmingly "me too" popular, and cliched to the point of banality, or simple embarrassment.

Often favored by teens - Mall rats easily spring to mind - & young adults wanting to project belonging to a group, culture or common state of mind, herdware can include the ubiquitous naval, ear, nose, lips, genital or etc, etc, body piercings. Or out-of-the-box tattoos like Celtic, faux-tribal, barbwire, etc, ad nauseum designs.

Types or styles of clothing, jewelery, cellphones, and any other hackneyed device, appliance or conveyance can devolve into herdware.