The appeal of the polo shirt never really goes away, and this season it is especially hot, helped along by the hip-hop world’s fascination with all things preppy. But with the polo comes a vexing question that consumers have not had to face since the 1980s:
To pop or not to pop?
We’re talking collars here.
It’s a hot topic on college campuses from Amherst to Tulane to Arizona State, where concern over the proper way to wear a polo–and the direction of a few square inches of cotton fabric hugging the neck–has newspaper columnists opining and bloggers blah-blah-blahing.
“When I look at a collar, it’s just begging me to pop it!” notes a senior at North Carolina State, quoted in a campus paper.
“The popped must be stopped!” types a University of Virginia blogger.
While many students follow the lead of hip-hop trend-setters such as Kanye West, Andre 3000 and Usher (who urges: “Pop Ya Collar”), a growing cadre of underclassmen have joined Anti-Popped Collar Clubs. These don’t appear to be official organizations, per se–more cranky cyberspace concoctions–Web sites where you can log on, sign up and rant.
“I think these people have too much time on their hands,” says Christophe Lemaire, creative director of Lacoste, polomakers since 1933.
“It’s like ‘West Side Story,’ and the Sharks and the Jets are gonna meet at the gym,” says Robbie Laughlin, of Bravo TV’s new “Queer Eye for the Straight Girl.”
“Right now my collar is up, but when my wife sees it, she makes me put it down,” admits Shep Murray, clad in a long-sleeve navy polo. Murray and his brother Ian run Vineyard Vines, a Martha’s Vineyard company known for its nautical-print ties, boxers and cotton pique polos.
The Murray brothers are preps from way back, having grown up in Greenwich, Conn., and Martha’s Vineyard. And although Murray admits to owning some 18 pairs of Nantucket Reds (those prepster pants worn on boat decks and marinas from Port Jefferson to Cape Cod), he insists that “preppy”–and the upturned collar–is not a look solely for the “well-bred,” with names like Muffy, Buffy, Skipper and, well, Shep.
“We drove rusty trucks and wore sweaters in the house to keep warm,” says Murray, identifying with a decidedly middle-class upbringing.
Still, to avoid the snob factor, Laughlin advises folding collars down. Body-conscious cuts and bright colors keep things fresh. The look, he says, is best when mixed with 21st Century casual–jeans, not khakis; flip-flops (come warmer weather), not loafers.
“The polo is a true postmodern classic–a symbol of cool and relaxed elegance, which, let’s face it, everyone aspires to,” Lacoste’s Lemaire says.
And how does he wear his collar?
“One side up, one side down, so I am sure to please everybody,” he says, avoiding the question.
Then again, considering the ensembles of kids on the subway–baseball caps worn diagonally; one pant leg up, one down; and waistbands hanging far south of the equator–maybe it’s not such a crazy idea after all.
No doubt the one-collar-up, one-collar-down look is just a hip-hop video away.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
