Polo? Tennis? A Shirt For Both and More.

Current and vintage polos from Lacoste, Vineyard Vines, and Polo Ralph Lauren.
Mesh or interlock. Short sleeve or long, but usually short. Lacoste or Polo by Ralph Lauren, Fred Perry or Boast, or many others. It is a staple of the prep wardrobe. T-shirts? Sure we have those. Sometimes we even wear them. Normally, though, this shirt, designed by René Lacoste, the French 7-time Grand Slam tennis champion, is a go-to part for the oxymoronic styles of being casually put-together or nonchalantly go-to-hell.

Ironically, it has come to be known as the polo shirt in a very roundabout fashion. Even though it was somewhat related to shirts of a similar design used by various players of polo in the 1800s, there is no direct convergence between Lacoste's shirt and polo until much later. In 1856, John Brooks of Brooks Brothers brought over a design for a very different polo shirt. He had witnessed a polo match where players had worn what we now call Oxford Cloth Button Downs, which had been developed to keep shirt collars from flying up into polo players' faces. It was an instant hit, and it remains one for the prep set- just not for polo.

In 1920, Canadian-Argentinian polo payer Lewis L. Lacey produced a shirt that was almost the shirt we recognise today. It even had a polo player on the breast. In the 1923 season these shirts worn by the Hurlingham Polo Team were created and sold by Lacey to others. Similarly, Lacoste and other tennis players were typically used to playing in long-sleeved white button-up shirts (worn with the sleeves rolled up), flannel trousers, and ties. As you might imagine, Lacoste was not a fan of this and instead designed a shirt with an unstarched, flat, protruding collar, a buttoned placket, and a longer shirt-tail in back than in front (which sadly, Lacoste no longer has on their modern design). This design was adopted by a number of sports, leading to a version which would become the modern rugby shirt, and of course, by the 1950s, was adopted by polo players. At this point even tennis players called the shirt a polo shirt.

Fred Perry, famous English-American tennis player launched his own line (after perfecting the sweatband!) of tennis shirts. It is still a choice among some members of the prep set who consider Lacoste to be too showy or Ralph Lauren to be too inauthentic. Like another prep institution, J.PRESS, Fred Perry is now owned by a Japanese conglomerate. However, it was from the shirt's association with the game of polo, well after Lacey's version had already been used on and off, and Ralph Lauren launched his "Polo" line featuring a design very close to (and some say stolen directly from) Lacoste, that the shirt really became popular. Part of Lauren's 1972 line, it was an instant hit and has changed the fashion landscape forever. In 1973, Boast introduced their own version. Many say that Lauren's offerings are, regardless of heritage or legacy, the only design that "keeps it real." However, with the resurrection of Boast and new labels like Band of Outsiders, perhaps his dominance will be challenged in the future...


Polo by Polo Ralph lauren, slacks by Uniqlo, ribbon belt by Uniqlo, watch by Brooks Brothers, NATO strap by American Eagle Outfitters, shoes by Sperry Top-siders.

Fair winds and following seas.