Hot on the heels of funnel-neck and scarf-bedecked coats for winter, the collar remains a styling focal point for spring/summer 2027. Is the neck the new erogenous zone? It’s certainly being courted for attention.
As the newly invigorated preppy trend evolves beyond the button-up and tie combinations seen on everyone from Charli XCX to Ayo Edebiri, things are shaking down and loosening up. Notably, a popped collar has entered the dishevelled chat.
At Dries Van Noten, Julien Klausner described his woman – complete with rumpled rugby shirts worn open and shirting collars standing up – as “an actress, after a day on set, taking the streets back to reality”, while he explored the “joy of dressing” and “the characters we write for ourselves”. An approach that asks us to plunder our wardrobes, mix and match pieces on top of each other, and find our singular attitude within.
Phoebe Philo’s Collection F (out in spring) showcased the easy power of a crisp cotton shirt collar pulled straight, like a structured frame for the neck – a great canvas to balance a stand-out earring against; with sleeves pushed to the elbow, cuffs pleasingly wide and prominent.
Daniel Lee at Burberry, whose trench and jacket collars were worn pleasingly high, was also suggesting a personal approach. In the show notes, he explained that, “‘Nothing is overly pressed or pristine. There’s an intentional imperfection: the idea of owning a piece, living in it.”
That idea of imperfection or in fashion speak, “throwing something off”, has long been a hallmark of preppy style. At Gucci, Demna leaned into the classic Eurotrash look with stiffly starched shirt collars worn insouciantly high up, paired with jodhpurs and sweaters tossed across the shoulders – a look Jilly Cooper couldn’t have written better.
It fits with the injection of athletic references (see: Miu Miu) running through the refreshed motifs of the bourgeoisie. History nerds will make a pleasing connection with René Lacoste. In 1929, the tennis player famously conjured the first jersey three-button polo shirt as an easy-to-wear riposte to the constrictions of the traditional long-sleeved white cotton shirts worn to play in. On court, he popped up the collar to shield his neck from the sun. A style icon and look was born.
He wasn’t the only one creating a go-to reference for the ages. Katharine Hepburn often wore her crisp shirting with collars starched upright, a uniform development which gave her a cool, disruptive confidence. The style became synonymous with Ivy League collegiate students, living the perfect preppy American academic dream in smart casual with a wink.
The popped collar became such a symbol of that high society sports-strewn aesthetic that in Lisa Birnbach’s (published in 1980), which crystallised the lifestyle of the upwardly mobile, the popped collar is singled out as a definitive expression of belonging, setting the tone for a decade of pastel polo popping. It is a look that translates across the globe’s social elite – see: the plucky Sloane Ranger navigating similar private school and country club aesthetic terrain.
Alongside the posh connotations, a popped collar signified rebellion and danger. Enter: James Dean, Danny Zuko and The Sex Pistol’s Johnny Rotten, who injected the look with the kind of rough cool that Y2K kids in Abercrombie & Fitch emulating Chuck Bass could but dream of. It is a look which, whoever wears it, requires confidence and self-belief. An attitude to stand taller than everyone else. Pleasingly, it’s a styling hack which costs nothing – what more could you want from a trend?
Wherever you fit on the social scale, in the immortal words of Usher, “Hey ladies, hey fellas, you know you’re doing good ‘cause they jealous… Pop ya collar and don’t be afraid to show it”.
