Scrum-my! The rugby shirt earn sits stripes

FIRST IT WAS the football scarf, then Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat. Now sporting fans, with a flair for fashion, are making room in their wardrobes for a new obsession – the rugby shirt. You might think this is solely down to the current World Cup, which had to postpone some matches in the wake of Japan’s Typhoon Hagibis, but the fashion pack have been paid-up members of the rugby shirt club after seeing stripes and collars on the catwalks in February.

Alexander Wang’s short-sleeved version came in Dennis The Menace colours, while Hussein Chalayan elongated his navy-andburgundy shirt into a dress that stretched to the mid-calf. Riccardo Tisci put his own spin on the rugby shirt at Burberry, splicing two together, one red-and-black, one green-andblue, to make a kind of Franken-shirt that was styled with trainer boots. Grace Wales Bonner, who said her inspiration was ‘black intellectual dress at Howard University’, sent hers down the catwalk tucked into high-waisted trousers.

It’s a look that’s already scored with the Instagram set. Kendall Jenner styled JW Anderson’s rubgy with straight-leg jeans and Birkenstocks in September, while Hailey Bieber got a jump on the trend in January, wearing her Alexander Wang jersey with hi-tops, hoop earrings and a Chanel handbag.

A word of warning for anyone wanting to follow suit though: you might want to side-step chinos, signet rings, Alice bands and anything else that says ‘Sloane Ranger’ when tackling the rugby shirt. Khaki combats, or even a pair of mock-croc leather trousers, will serve you far better. Now you just need to know your scrum-half from your fly-half and you’re sorted.