![Polo Shirt Basic Pattern](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Polo_Shirt_Basic_Pattern.png)
A polo shirt, tennis shirt, golf shirt, or chukker shirt is a form of shirt with a collar. Polo shirts are usually short sleeved but can be long; they were used by
polo players
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small har ...
originally in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in 1859 and in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
during the 1920s.
Polo shirts are usually made of
knitted
Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
(rather than
woven
Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics are often created on a loom, and made of many threads woven on a warp and a weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to on ...
cloth), usually a
piqué knit, or less commonly an
interlock
An interlock is a feature that makes the state of two mechanisms or functions mutually dependent. It may be used to prevent undesired states in a finite-state machine, and may consist of any electrical, electronic, or mechanical devices or system ...
knit (the latter used frequently, though not exclusively, with
pima cotton
''Gossypium barbadense'' (''gos-SIP-pee-um bar-ba-DEN-see'') is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was ...
polos), or using other fibers such as
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
,
wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool.
As ...
,
synthetic fiber
Synthetic fibers or synthetic fibres (in British English; see spelling differences) are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) ...
s, or blends of natural and synthetic fibers. A
dress
A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that covers ...
-length version of the shirt is called a polo dress.
History of the tennis shirt
![Tennis-shirt-lacoste](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Tennis-shirt-lacoste.jpg)
In the 19th and early 20th centuries,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
players ordinarily wore "tennis whites" consisting of long-sleeved white button-up shirts (worn with the sleeves rolled up), flannel
trousers
Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dr ...
, and
ties TIES may refer to:
* TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science
* TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System
* TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence
* Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science
The ''Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science' ...
.
[The Story of Lacoste. Retrieved from .]
Style & Design: Lacoste
''Time'' Magazine, Winter 2004. This attire presented problems for ease of play and comfort.
René Lacoste
Jean René Lacoste was a French people, French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste polo shirt, tennis shirt, which h ...
, the French seven-time
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tennis champion, felt that the stiff tennis attire was too cumbersome and uncomfortable.
He designed a white, short-sleeved, loosely-knit
piqué cotton (he called the cotton weave ''jersey petit piqué'') shirt with an unstarched, flat, protruding collar, a buttoned placket, and a shirt-tail longer in back than in front (known today as a "tennis tail"; see below), which he first wore at the 1926 U.S. Open championship.
[''The Brand Channel'', Lacoste profile](_blank)
.
Beginning in 1927, Lacoste placed a crocodile emblem on the left breast of his shirts, as the American press had begun to refer to him as "The Crocodile",
/ref>[''The Birth of the Crocodile''](_blank)
/ref> a nickname which he embraced.
Lacoste's design mitigated the problems that traditional tennis attire created:
* the short, cuffed sleeves solved the tendency of long sleeves to roll down
* the shirt should be buttoned to the top
* the piqué collar
Collar may refer to:
Human neckwear
*Clerical collar (informally ''dog collar''), a distinctive collar used by the clergy of some Christian religious denominations
*Collar (clothing), the part of a garment that fastens around or frames the neck
...
could be worn upturned to protect the neck
The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...
skin from the sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
* the jersey knit piqué cotton breathed and was more durable
* the "tennis tail" prevented the shirt from pulling out of the wearer's trousers or shorts
In 1933, after retiring from professional tennis, Lacoste teamed up with André Gillier
Lacoste S.A. is a French company, founded in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste, and entrepreneur Mangkha. It sells clothing, footwear, sportswear, eyewear, leather goods, perfume, towels and watches. The company can be recognised by its gre ...
, a friend who was a clothing merchandiser, to market that shirt in Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. Together, they formed the company Chemise Lacoste, and began selling their shirts, which included the small embroidered crocodile logo on the left breast.
Application to polo
Until the beginning of 20th century polo
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...
players wore thick, long-sleeved shirts made of Oxford-cloth cotton. This shirt was the first to have a buttoned-down collar, which polo players invented in the late 19th century to keep their collars from flapping in the wind (Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers, founded in Manhattan, New York, in 1818, is the oldest apparel brand in continuous operation in America. Originally a family business, Brooks Brothers produces clothing for men, women and children, as well as home furnishings. B ...
' early president, John Brooks, noticed this while at a polo match in England and began producing such a shirt in 1896).
Brooks Brothers still produces this style of button-down "polo shirt". Still, like early tennis clothing, those clothes presented a discomfort on the field.
In 1920, Lewis Lacey, a Canadian (born of English parents in Montreal, Quebec in 1887) haberdasher
In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...
and polo player, began producing a shirt that was embroidered with an emblem of a polo player, a design originating at the Hurlingham Polo Club near Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
.
The definition of the uniform of polo players – the polo shirt and a pair of white trousers – is actually a fairly recent addition to the sport. Until the 1940s shirts were generally very plain, with no numbers, writing or logos. When necessary, numbers (ranging from 1 – 4) were simply pinned on to the back of the player's shirts a few minutes before the start of a match.
To differentiate the polo teams from one another, some polo shirts had horizontal stripes, others bore diagonal coloured stripes.
In 1972, Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his co ...
marketed a tennis shirt as a "polo shirt" as a prominent part of his original line Polo
Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...
, thereby helping further its already widespread popularity. While not specifically designed for use by polo players, Lauren's shirt imitated what by that time had become the normal attire for polo players. As he desired to exude a certain " WASPishness" in his clothes, initially adopting the style of clothiers like Brooks Brothers, J. Press
J. Press is a traditional men's clothier founded in 1902 on Yale University's campus in New Haven, Connecticut by Jacobi Press. The brand also has stores in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 1974, the Press family sold the rights to license ...
, and "Savile Row
Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...
"-style English clothing, he prominently included this attire from the "sport of kings" in his line, replete with a logo reminiscent of Lacoste's crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
emblem
An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint.
Emblems vs. symbols
Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often use ...
, depicting a polo player and pony.
Golf
Over the latter half of the 20th century, as standard clothing in golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
became more casual, the tennis shirt was adopted nearly universally as standard golf attire. Many golf courses and country clubs require players to wear golf shirts as a part of their dress code
A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regard to what clothing groups of people must wear. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances, and occasions. Different societies an ...
."Dress Code: Proper Golf Attire"
Long Island National Golf Club Moreover, producing Lacoste's "tennis shirt" in various golf cuts has resulted in specific designs of the tennis shirt for golf, resulting in the moniker ''golf shirt''.
Golf shirts are commonly made out of polyester
Polyester is a category of polymers that contain the ester functional group in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include natural ...
, cotton-polyester blends, or mercerized
Mercerisation is a textile finishing treatment for cellulose fabric and yarn, mainly cotton and flax, which improves dye uptake and tear strength, reduces fabric shrinkage, and imparts a silk-like luster.
Development
The process was devi ...
cotton. The placket
A placket (also spelled placquet) is an opening in the upper part of trousers or skirts, or at the neck or sleeve of a garment. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily but are sometimes used purely as a d ...
typically holds three or four buttons, and consequently extends lower than the typical polo neckline. The collar is typically fabricated using a stitched double-layer of the same fabric used to make the shirt, in contrast to a polo shirt collar, which is usually one-ply ribbed knit cotton. Golf shirts often have a pocket on the left side, to hold a scorepad and pencil, and may not bear a logo there.
See also
* Rugby shirt
A rugby shirt, also known as a rugby jersey, is worn by players of rugby union or rugby league. It usually has short sleeves, though long sleeves are common as well.
Traditionally, rugby shirts have had a buttoned opening at the top, in a similar ...
* Sportswear (activewear)
Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons.
Typical sport-specific garments ...
References
{{Clothing
1926 clothing
1920s fashion
1930s fashion
1970s fashion
1980s fashion
1990s fashion
2000s fashion
French inventions
Shirts
Tennis equipment
Tops (clothing)