Even before she opened her red-lacquered lips to ask, the Queen of Hearts must have already guessed Alice’s answer just from looking at her.
“Do you play croquet?”
Not in that outfit, she doesn’t.
Fast forward 150 years, a time when The Official Preppy Handbook is back in print and collars are starched for maximum pop. These days there exists a niche in the 18-to-24-year-old market for prep fashion, and at least one designer is capitalizing on it. Ralph Lauren is most venerable of the American fashion houses and, in cahoots with Brooks Brothers and British designer Lilly Pulitzer, has formed the basis of the nouveau-prep movement. Rugby is Lauren’s most recently launched collection, specifically targeting the college sector. The line is currently sold in stores of the same name. Only two of the “concept stores” exist nationwide—one is located on Boston’s Newbury St.; the other just opened on East Franklin St. in Chapel Hill.
The gimmick is simple. Take a successful and established brand name, update its hallmark designs and advertise in campus newspapers—voila, an incredibly lucrative endeavor. College-age kids spent nearly $30 billion on clothing in the last 12 months, according to a New York-based research firm, and are a notoriously fickle slice of the expenditure pie for Lauren's company. Rugby, according to the suits at Ralph Lauren, is an attempt to change all that.
But if the marketing strategy behind Rugby is relatively simple, the ultra-chic concept store is a feat of sheer marketing genius. Salespeople are clad in ensembles chosen by management; the pieces—denim miniskirts, cashmere boleros, madras pants and oversize rugby jerseys—are theirs to keep.
“We explain our style, and then they pick out things they think we would like,” said one salesman at the Chapel Hill branch. “I love the style. It’s so relaxed.”
Prices are also somewhat relaxed. Though the store teeters on the cusp of expensive—tweed blazers can run up to $298—the majority of the store’s offerings are much more moderately priced than Ralph Lauren luxury label. Polo shirts are about $48, markedly cheaper than the Polo brand.
Physically, the design of the store is also impressive. Dressing rooms resemble below-deck cabins on a yacht with heavy canvas curtains, polished teak, brass fixtures and a heap of plaid flannel pillows. Vintage photographs of rugby players and other athletes adorn the walls; several antique leather foot- and rugby-balls are stacked above the register.
Ripe old age is thematic: There is nothing trendy about Rugby. Rather than stressing groundbreaking changes in cut and fabric, the line uses color as a way to stay current. Classic cable-knit cardigans, ruffly cotton pique tennis skirts and seersucker pants—things that your grandmother wore as a junior counselor at all-girls summer camp—are updated in chartreuse and tangerine. Even the store’s throwback soundtrack deftly mixes a few hip-hop hits with the Beatles’ White Album in its near-entirety.
The items that are most representative of Rugby's success thus far are the Ralph Lauren patches. Styled after blazer patches or uniform crests, the logos are sewn on or purchased separately for $15 to $30. Brand premiums at their finest—wearers reportedly pin patches to pants or have jersey number-like examples sewn to the backs of sweatshirts. Remarkably, these have been incredibly hot sellers.
Lauren himself has made plans for new stores to open in Charlottesville, Va. and perhaps in Princeton, N.J., catering to the collegiate masses. Local success seems imminent, with shoppers coming from across the Triangle to outfit themselves. And on a campus where preppiness is next to godliness, you can be sure to see the Rugby logo. At any rate, if your familiarity with elite lawn sports, like Alice’s, is nil, you'll at least look like you know port from starboard.
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