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 and to mass-market brands including , 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 to

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