How Preppy Style Found Its Footing in France

Preppy style—like its most notable modern progenitor, Ralph Lauren—is coded as all-American. But the aesthetic marked by rumpled Oxford shirts and popped polos has also found fertile ground in France, a nation famously resistant to Americanization. From its designer labels like Ami Paris and De Bonne Facture to mass-market brands including Octobre Éditions, there’s a distinctly prep feel to current fall collections marked by striped rugby shirts, brushed crewneck sweaters and flat-front chinos.  The difference is that the French have taken prep’s building blocks and infused it with their own sense of élan.

“It’s not about copying a style; it’s about making it your own, interpreting it through your own sensibility,” says Octobre Éditions brand director Arthur Person, citing a Gallic passion for brighter color and playing with tonality. “You can clearly recognize some preppy elements, of course, but when you mix them with that French sense of ease—this sort of ‘effortless imperfection’ we love—it becomes something completely different.”

Crémieux creative director and CEO Stéphane Crémieux believes Franco-prep is defined by the national penchant for mixing together different elements and sensibilities, calling out lightweight scarves and brightly colored knitwear in particular.

“It’s the art of accessorizing with the right scarf, the right color sweater. It’s an unconventional chic,” he tells Robb Report.

Gauthier Borsarello, fashion director of the French menswear magazine L’Ettiquetteand creative director of the menswear brand Fursac, traces French prep’s origins back to the end of the Second World War, when American pop culture first began to permeate France via music and films.

“People wanted to look like their favorite stars and tried to find the garments they wore, either in military surplus stores, where colossal stocks had been left behind by the U.S. Army, or by seeking them directly from America,” he says. “This aesthetic gradually evolved throughout the following decades, reaching its peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s.”

If any individual deserves credit for that peak, it would be Stéphane’s father Daniel Crémieux, who passed away in September at the age of 87. As his son relates, Daniel founded the business in 1976 after traveling to New York and finding inspiration in J. Press, Brooks Brothers and the in-store Polo boutique at Bloomingdale’s. His own brand, based in Saint Tropez, blended those sensibilities with a yachty French Rivera streak that saw solid white and navy garments included in every season, a nautical touch that’s remained in its collections to the present day. And while his chief influences were stateside, he was determined to manufacture in France using local factories (today Crémieux produces its garments primarily in Europe).

Indeed, there’s a precedent, and continuing pride, in French prep prioritizing its own homegrown brands, with Lacoste standing out as the preeminent example. Borsarello identifies its polo shirts and cardigans as being particular blue chips, as well as J.M. Weston loafers, Cartier watches and the woven elastic belts made by L’Aiglon, a beltmaker founded in 1889 and named after Napoleon’s son.

“Their quality often surpassed that of their American counterparts, so it made little sense to replace these French houses with foreign equivalents,” he says of their continued relevance.  “Instead, the idea was to take the best from abroad and blend it with the best of France. I believe that is the essence of French preppy style: the art of combining the finest of here and elsewhere.”

It’s a maxim that also rings true of American prep, itself a mishmash of foreign influences ranging from British sportswear to Indian madras, filtered through a national character that prizes individuality and casual ease. Come to think of it, these twin poles of prep communicate the same message—just with different accents.