WORDS BY REBECCA RHYS-EVANS

What do Blair Waldorf, Bunny MacDougal and Vivian Kensington all have in common? Sure, they’re on-screen villains but the real thread of connection - they know yuppie styling. Dressing preppy is actually more simple than it looks. For starters you’ll need an Ivy League sweatshirt, pearl earrings (extra points if it’s inherited) and an abundance of cashmere cardigans. At first glance, the bottom line appears to be simply dress ‘rich’, but in recent years this has evolved beyond ironically taking up golf and donning your dad’s country club jumper. Thanks to the likes of Creative Director Alessandro Michele at Gucci, cult British label Shrimps, Rowen Rose and Rodarte, oversized frothy collars, pink wool dresses and extreme shoulder pads are back and are even bigger than when Alexis Carrington invented them – and I love it. 

For me, the most brilliant thing about yuppie style is it's timeless aesthetic. Cast your mind to those iconic films that showcase the American elite – the 1920s classic The Great Gatsby, the waspy 1970s New Yorker’s in Annie Hall and Love Story, and don’t get me started on Reese Witherspoon’s 80s preppy perfection in American Psycho. Decades may come and go – but it’s clear yuppie styling is here to stay.

In the UK, we have our own yuppie tribe, enter the Sloane Ranger. Blossoming in the Diana years, ‘Sloanes’, a sort of pre-millennium Made in Chelsea clan, were the archetype of the British upper class, the darlings of Sloane Square society, and the absolute bread and butter of Tatler magazine. Personally, I’m not too keen on their Dubarry boots, Barbour coats and those questionable tweed flat caps, but the high waisted jeans worn with billowing white shirts? Knit argyle vests? Oh, go on then. 

Call me basic, but like Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and many, many girls on Instagram, I believe the ultimate WFH fit is the now highly recycled Princess Di oversized sweater and cycling shorts ensemble. If I’m to style it up for the office (I call it office-appropriate athleisure), I’ll add a Celine blazer and my Wimbledon cap – if you ever wondered what the long lost love child of Kendall Roy and Lady Spencer looked like, this is it. 

Another look I can’t seem to shake is Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton in Thom Browne. There’s no stranger thing than a person in shorts out of season, but much to the amusement of my colleagues, I’m always there on the frosty days in March and October with my legs out, donning sport socks and a blazer, much like a public school boy on the first day of term.

So whilst I may not tend to hang around Sloane Square, and don’t have an Ivy League degree, I do have a first class education in the fashion that goes with it. You could say I’m partial to a penny loafer and pussy bow ensemble. Because if Harry Styles can do it, why can’t I?