LONDON — In Oxford University’s nearly 930-year history, the institution has resisted a fashion course, but many of its alumni have come to inspire what’s now known as the “Oxford look” — intentionally or not.

In most cases, it’s a striped necktie or argyle sweater as depicted in “Brideshead Revisited” or “The Riot Club” — or simply, a waxed Barbour jacket in Netflix’s new film “My Oxford Year,” about Anna De La Vega (Sofia Carson), an American grad student, who falls in love with Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest), the teaching assistant for her Victorian poetry course.

“The university offers [student] guides done and my guide had two different colored socks on — he’d obviously just gotten up and put whatever on,” said costume designer Claire Finlay-Thompson in an interview, adding that the mismatched look inspired the charmingly shabby ensembles of Tom Sethi (Nikhil Parmar).

She wandered around the university town, watching and taking notes or photographs of the students’ style.

“If you just pull images off the internet or from magazines, then it would all just look very glossed, and I want to make it real because we’re telling a story and we want it to have a reality,” she said.

Finlay-Thompson also rewatched the 1970 college romantic drama “Love Story” starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal for inspiration in terms of color and “vibe,” but she didn’t have to travel far to get the “Oxford look” just right. She found fashion tidbits on her own doorstep in the Cotswolds, where a Barbour or Fairfax & Favor boot is always in close proximity.

“His [Jamie’s] father is also in a Barbour, which is part of their [family] uniform. I wanted him to be smart looking without having to put him in a suit, so we went for shirt and trouser combinations or sweaters with rolled-up sleeves, so that he still looked approachable,” she said.

The costume designer took a generally traditional approach to Jamie’s wardrobe using plenty of British brands including Sunspel, Holland Cooper and Percival. 

“Jamie’s character comes from money, so we got the brands that [reflected that] and I gave him a silver watch with a blue dial to wear — I wanted it to look like a heritage piece that maybe belonged to his brother or father,” Finlay-Thompson said.

In many of the scenes, she found herself using pieces from her expansive warehouse, where she’s been collecting fashion items for over two decades.

“I collect quite eclectic things and the students are quite eclectic because they can’t really afford fashion the same way that Jamie can,” she said.

Finlay-Thompson gave Charlie Butler (Harry Trevaldwyn), one of the more enthusiastic and eccentrically dressed characters in the poetry course, a Burberry trenchcoat as well as a number of waistcoats and shirts featuring prints of birds and flowers.

“He thinks of himself as a poet and is a bit of a romantic, that’s why he likes the idea of being at Oxford wearing a waistcoat. He obviously loves ‘Bridgerton’ and is a modern version of that with his high-waisted 1950s trousers and Jeffrey Campbell boots,” she explained.

Costuming has always come naturally to Finlay-Thompson, who grew up making clothes for her Sindy dolls and then went on to study at Wimbledon School of Art in the late ‘90s, where she was taught by Hazel Pethig, the costume designer behind “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” who offered her the opportunity to work on the set of “Fierce Creatures.”

“I was in a work room making animal costumes and big prop stuff,” she said.

But Finlay-Thompson’s latest project “Kill Jackie,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, takes a dark and glamorous turn from zoos and Oxford libraries. The series follows an ex-cocaine dealer who has moved into the art world as she fights off The Seven Demons, a group of elite hitmen hired to kill her.

“People are going to be shocked at how funny Catherine is — it’s not a comedy, but her performance is incredible and she does it all in a Welsh accent, which she’s never done before on camera,” she said. 

The series is produced by Damon Thomas, one of the producers behind “Killing Eve,” and judging from paparazzi shots of Zeta-Jones in sequins and furs — maybe there’s a new Villanelle coming to the small screen.