This product is coded for high-end boarding schools

Preppy style is in the midst of a renaissance, and not just because Ralph Lauren made us all want to invest in Team USA’s Olympic blazer. Miu Miu was one of the key drivers of this aesthetic, with models walking the Spring/Summer 2024 runway in polo shirts, boat shoes, and baggy board shorts. It’s the artfully tousled look familiar to anyone who attended a British university in the 1990s. This scruffy version of “prep” is far less sophisticated than the buttoned-up Ivy League stereotype and reeks of a hangover. It was perfectly captured by the character of Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennel’s Saltburn, who limped around Oxford University in a long-sleeved rugby shirt, baggy jeans and earrings.

Rugby shirts, boat shoes, signet rings, and padded vests are usually considered more Prince William’s than street style. But the rugby shirt has become the latest sportswear item to receive the high fashion treatment, repositioned as an unlikely cult purchase by brands like The Row, Dries Van Noten and Miu Miu.

You can now find this style in every organic wine bar in London, but the key is to never combine it with other athleisure under any circumstances. This isn’t a top you’d wear with Lululemon leggings or New Balance sneakers. Instead, we want to use this as a quirky sportswear item within a sophisticated look. Instead of Saltburn’s slouchy aesthetic, pair an oversized polo with an embellished pencil skirt, puffball hem mini, or tailored trousers.

On-trend styles include many boxy shirts with wide horizontal stripes in rich college colors such as burgundy, green, and red. Popular brands include &Daughter, which sells beautiful knit long-sleeve polo shirts spun from lambswool, and Gigi Hadid’s brand Guest in Residence. No, you don’t need to understand the sport at all to take advantage of this trend.