There is a moment, mid frame, when a Polo Ralph Lauren racing jacket does what it was designed to do in the first place, command attention through line and insignia rather than spectacle. On Tom Holland, photographed for Esquire UK, the piece lands with the crisp certainty of a garment that has always belonged to the mythology of American sportswear, then learned to travel well.
Why the Polo Ralph Lauren racing jacket is back in the picture
Racing inspired jackets have cycled through fashion for decades, but Ralph Lauren’s versions tend to pull from a specific archive: motorsport patches, bold typography, and a silhouette that sits cleanly at the waist, built for movement, then adopted by cities. Holland’s editorial styling pairs the jacket with a Rugby shirt, another Ralph Lauren pillar that has never really left wardrobes, only the front row.
What makes this particular appearance notable is how direct the message is. No ironic costume play, no remixing into something unrecognisable. It is simply Tom Holland in Polo Ralph Lauren, shot as a modern leading man who can carry heritage clothes without turning them into museum pieces.
Esquire UK’s fashion team, mapped in the credits
The byline may be implied, but the machinery is fully on display. The shoot is credited to editor in chief Teo van den Broeke, with photography by Matt Healy and styling by Crystalle Cox. Grenadine Dempsey directs, while Zak Maoui serves as Style Director. That level of explicit crediting is more than polite housekeeping, it is a reminder that the look you read in a single glance is the result of many hands shaping proportion, gesture, and texture.
There is also a craft detail that matters for clothes like these: a tailor is listed. Tailoredbynancy is credited, suggesting the fit was treated as part of the narrative rather than an afterthought. With a Polo Ralph Lauren racing jacket, millimetres count, where the hem sits, how the shoulder breaks, whether the collar frames the neck or collapses.
Racing jacket plus Rugby shirt: a Ralph Lauren code
Ralph Lauren has always been less about a single trend than a set of wardrobes you can move between, prep, Western, motorsport, collegiate, all held together by fabrication and colour. A Rugby shirt under a racing jacket is one of those combinations that sounds almost too obvious until you see it executed with care.
What the pairing communicates
The Rugby shirt brings stripe and structure near the face, the racing jacket brings iconography across the chest and sleeves. Together, they create a high low tension that suits celebrity style right now: recognisable, photograph friendly, and specific to a house that built its reputation on making American references exportable. If you are searching for a way to wear a Polo Ralph Lauren racing jacket without feeling like you are impersonating a pit crew, anchoring it with a classic Rugby does half the work.
Where this sits in Tom Holland’s style arc
Holland’s public wardrobe has increasingly leaned into established houses rather than novelty dressing, and the appeal here is legibility. The jacket and Rugby shirt read instantly, even in a fast scroll. The editorial also underscores something else: Ralph Lauren’s sportswear is at its strongest when it looks lived in, not rarefied, the sort of clothing that gains character from repetition.
For readers tracking the brand itself, Polo Ralph Lauren remains the core line under Ralph Lauren Corporation, with the company’s portfolio and brand structure outlined in its official overview. You can see how Polo sits within the wider house on Ralph Lauren’s “Our Brands” page. For the source editorial context and masthead, Esquire publishes a UK edition with its own fashion team, as presented at Esquire UK.
If you are building a wardrobe around pieces that do more than one job, travel, dinner, a flight, a morning call, a Polo Ralph Lauren racing jacket over a Rugby shirt is a reminder that classics can still look pointed, provided the fit is right and the references are owned rather than over explained.
Photo Credits
Images courtesy of their respective owners.
