If Dua Lipa’s Chanel wedding dress was among the most anticipated fashion moments this summer, her new husband Callum Turner’s wardrobe is proving just as influential. But forget the bespoke Louis Vuitton morning suit – it’s all about his polo shirts, which he wore in Palermo during the couple’s lengthy nuptials this month.

Turner’s polo of choice is a £75 terrycloth version by French brand Octobre Editions, but he is far from the first to champion the preppy top that spans celebrity, sport and politics alike. During England’s first game at the World Cup against Croatia, manager Thomas Tuchel wore a merino wool polo shirt from Marks & Spencer. Pundits watching World Cup games – including Gary Neville and Patrick Vieira – were also wearing polos. For their post-match assessment of the Netherlands v Japan match, Roy Keane, Ange Postecoglou and Neville each wore a polo shirt in mint green, cream and beige respectively. And just last weekend, Andy Burnham appeared shortly after his Makerfield byelection win wearing a blue polo shirt with jeans and Birkenstocks.

Of course, the appeal of the polo shirt predates these headline-makers. Marks & Spencer report Tuchel’s polo had already generated £3.1m in sales since March, with 126,000 sold. On Pinterest, searches for “polo shirt” are up 120% since December. This popularity may be why Burnham chose to wear one; it has an everyman quality that is gold for a prospective prime minister.

But the polo shirt’s resurgence can still be credited to the trend cycle – it’s a key item in the preppy wardrobe, the look of American elite at leisure, that has existed since the 50s. Popular with younger consumers since around 2021, the look is now such a mainstay of fashion that it’s splitting into sub-categories. “The polo sits within what we are calling courtside and coastal prep, where racket sport influences meet relaxed seaside dressing,” says Heather Clark, the head of fashion at Pinterest. “In that space, the polo works as an anchor piece: polished enough to feel put-together, but relaxed enough to wear across different settings.”

In fact, the polo could be seen as the rival – or summer cousin – to the quarter-zip, the other preppy-adjacent shape preferred by young men now. Arthur Person, the brand director of Octobre Editions, sees the two items as complementary. “They share the same DNA,” he says“Together they cover almost every situation a man might face in his wardrobe.”

The polo shirt’s preppy roots come from its origins – in sports played by the elite. Polo players in India wore a long-sleeved shirt with collar, a design adopted by the British colonisers in the mid-19th century and adapted to a knitted shirt. Today’s design dates back to the 30s, and to tennis. When star player René Lacoste retired, he began to manufacture the pique cotton shirt with collar he had worn as a player. Fred Perry, another player, followed in 1952. The American spin came in the 70s when Ralph Lauren made the item central to his Polo line, with the trademark polo player on the chest. During the early 80s, the polo’s popularity peaked, with the Lacoste polo shirt earning $400m in US sales in 1982.

But Jason Jules, a London-based stylist and author of Black Ivy, says the history goes way beyond just preppy. “There’s this idea that the polo shirt is one of the classic symbols of old money,” he says. “That’s true, but only partly. The polo is also rooted in youth culture and working-class culture: think mod, rude boy and skinhead style. In that respect, it [also] lives in our collective memory as something cool and even edgy, and that’s also what makes it iconic.”

The polo has been worn by lots of musicians over the years – Jules points to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and more recently there are examples including Damon Albarn, Amy Winehouse and Tyler, the Creator. It has also, more controversially, been adopted by the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys, causing Fred Perry to take the preferred shirt off sale to avoid it being bought by those involved.

Mitch Hughes, the director of menswear at Marks & Spencer, says its usefulness is key to its return. “It sits somewhere between the ease of a T-shirt and the polish of a shirt.”

But Jules thinks its popularity is more than simply practicality. “The polo shirt is not about boasting or shouting its presence,” he says. “I think it symbolises a growing sense of confidence among men owning their style, not being pulled around by passing trends.”