Upturned collar

With the advent of the tennis shirt, however, the upturned collar took on a whole new purpose. In 1929 René Lacoste, the French 7-time Grand Slam champion, decided that the stiff dress shirts and ties usually worn by tennis players were too cumbersome and uncomfortable for the tennis court. Instead, he designed a loosely-knit pique cotton shirt with an un-starched, flat protruding collar and a longer shirt-tail in back than in front. This came to be known as the tennis shirt. Lacoste’s design called for a thick pique collar that one would wear turned up in order to block the sun from one’s neck. Thus, the tennis shirt’s upturned collar was originally designed by the inventor of the tennis shirt, himself, for ease and comfort on the tennis court, aiding the player by helping to prevent sunburn and hyperthermia.
Gradually, as tennis shirts became more popular and were produced more widely, their use transcended tennis and was adopted for golf, polo, other sports, and everyday life. As the tennis shirt entered the popular culture, wearers were less apt to turn up their collar to block the sun if not wearing the shirt during sport or outdoor activity. Thus, most people began to wear a tennis shirt without the collar turned up, or turning them up only when involved in sport. The professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is known for this practice today; as the golf shirt is a looser-fitting descendant of René Lacoste’s tennis shirt, off the course Zoeller wears his golf shirt’s collar turned down, whereas one often observes him with an upturned collar while he is playing.
Initial adoption as trend
In 1980, Lisa Birnbach published The Official Preppy Handbook, in which she extolled the “virtues of the upturned collar.” According to Ms. Birnbach, rather than being a sports innovation, the upturned collar on a tennis shirt was simply a signal that the wearer is a “preppy”. Despite this obviously tongue-in-cheek characterization, Ms. Birnbach did correctly identify that one was more likely to view an upturned collar on the beaches of Nantucket than one would in middle America
Resurgence as trend
American adult male wearing the collar on his tennis shirt turned up as a part of a popular culture trend in the early 2000s
In very recent years, however, the upturned collar has undergone a resurgence in popularity as a trend in the popular culture, particularly in the United States, where some people began to refer to it as a “popped collar” (especially after R&B performer Usher released a hit single in 2001 titled Pop Ya Collar). For a time, it also gained popularity as a trend in Europe (perhaps after soccer star Éric Cantona). Although the upturned collar no longer seems to be in vogue there, certain Americans still perceive the upturned collar to be a “preppy” status symbol and wear their collars turned up as such. This trend seems no longer to be limited to tennis shirts, as some people turn up the collars of shirts not designed to be worn that way or to have such a function.
Today, some Americans regard the trend as having worn out its welcome, and thus the wearer of an upturned collar can be the object of mockery and scorn. Still, others continue to turn up their collars as a popular culture fashion. This has been bolstered by publicity from retailers with a middle-class clientele, such as J. Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch, and American Eagle (see conspicuous consumption) (although Abercrombie & Fitch company styling requirements for the 2006 Holiday floorset officially said that their workers should not be turning their collars up.
Of course, even amidst this environment, there are many people throughout the Western world who do not turn up the collars of their tennis shirts as a popular culture trend (and are often mystified by its adoption as a trend), but rather continue to do so either out of lifelong habit or for the sport use for which it was originally designed.

Source wikipedia poppedcollarsarelame