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Polo shirt

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Not to be confused with Polo neck.

Polo shirt outline

A polo shirt, tennis shirt, golf shirt, or chukker shirt[1] is a form of shirt with a collar. Polo shirts are usually short sleeved but can be long; they were used by polo players originally in India in 1859 and in Great Britain during the 1920s.[2]

Polo shirts are usually made of knitted cotton (rather than woven cloth), usually a piqué knit, or less commonly an interlock knit (the latter used frequently, though not exclusively, with pima cotton polos), or using other fibers such as silk, wool, synthetic fibers, or blends of natural and synthetic fibers. A dress-length version of the shirt is called a polo dress.[3]

History of the tennis shirt

A Lacoste tennis shirt

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, tennis players ordinarily wore "tennis whites" consisting of long-sleeved white button-up shirts (worn with the sleeves rolled up), flannel trousers, and ties.[4][5][6] This attire presented problems for ease of play and comfort.[5]

René Lacoste, the French seven-time Grand Slam tennis champion, felt that the stiff tennis attire was too cumbersome and uncomfortable.[5] 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.[4][5][6][7]

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",[8][9] a nickname which he embraced.[4][5][6]

Lacoste's design mitigated the problems that traditional tennis attire created:[4][6][7][10]

  • the short, cuffed sleeves solved the tendency of long sleeves to roll down
  • the shirt should be buttoned to the top
  • the piqué collar could be worn upturned to protect the neck skin from the sun
  • 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, a friend who was a clothing merchandiser, to market that shirt in Europe and North America.[4][5][7] Together, they formed the company Chemise Lacoste, and began selling their shirts, which included the small embroidered crocodile logo on the left breast.[4][5]

Application to polo

Polo players Paul Barr, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Adolfo Cambiaso, Martin Valent with fellow player Prince William (center), wearing polo shirts as part of their uniform.

Until the beginning of 20th century, polo players wore thick, long-sleeved shirts made of Oxford-cloth cotton.[11][failed verification] 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' early president, John Brooks, noticed this while at a polo match in England and began producing such a shirt in 1896.[12][13] Brooks Brothers still produces this style of button-down "polo shirt".[12]

In 1920, Lewis Lacey, a Canadian (born of English parents in Montreal, Quebec in 1887) haberdasher 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.[14]

In 1972, Ralph Lauren marketed a tennis shirt as a "polo shirt" as a prominent part of his original line Polo, thereby helping further its already widespread popularity.[15] 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, and "Savile Row"-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 emblem, depicting a polo player and pony.

In large part due to Ralph Lauren (and arguably as an example of a genericized trademark), the term “polo shirt,” has become far more common than “tennis shirt” or “golf shirt.”

Golf

Over the latter half of the 20th century, as standard clothing in golf became more casual, the tennis shirt was adopted nearly universally as standard golf attire.[4] Many golf courses and country clubs require players to wear golf shirts as a part of their dress code.[16][17] 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, cotton-polyester blends, or mercerized cotton. The placket 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, originally designed to hold small items such as a scorepad and pencil.

In Vietnam

Polo shirts, also known as "áo thun có cổ" in Vietnamese, were introduced to Vietnam in the early 20th century by the French.[18][19] Initially, polo shirts were worn by the upper class and athletes. Gradually, polo shirts became popular and widely accepted by all social classes. Many Vietnamese companies and businesses choose polo shirts as their employee uniforms.[20][21][22] According to Metric.vn, the Vietnamese polo shirt market on e-commerce platforms reached 9.2 billion VND in 2023, a decrease of 19.3% compared to the previous quarter.[23][24] Polo shirts account for about 20% of the Vietnamese t-shirt market, equivalent to 1.84 billion VND.[23] In 2023, Vietnam exported 3.2 billion USD worth of t-shirts of all kinds,[25][26][27][28] of which polo shirts accounted for about 20%, equivalent to US$640 million.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ Mary Brooks Picken (24 July 2013). A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion: Historic and Modern. Courier Corporation. p. 62. ISBN 9780486141602. chukker shirt. Polo shirt, with short sleeves and open neck.
  2. ^ Charlotte Mankey Calasibetta, Phyllis Tortora (2003). The Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion. Fairchild Publications. New York. ISBN 1-56367-235-9.
  3. ^ McKean, Erin (2013). The Hundred Dresses: The Most Iconic Styles of Our Time. USA: A & C Black. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4725-3585-6.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Lacoste Sportswear – Fashion Designer Encyclopedia".
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Lacoste Story" (PDF). Lacoste. 1 January 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 January 2006. Retrieved 5 May 2011..
  6. ^ a b c d "What Is Polo Shirt and its Advantages". doods.in. 15 December 2004. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  7. ^ a b c The Brand Channel, Lacoste profile Archived 26 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ The Crocodile
  9. ^ The Birth of the Crocodile
  10. ^ Butterworth, Helen. "The History of the Polo Shirt". Polo T-Shirts. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  11. ^ Vittoria De Buzzaccarini, L'eleganza dello stile – Duecent'anni di vestir maschile. 1992, Edizioni Lupetti & co
  12. ^ a b "Two Centuries of Iconic American Design (1890s)". Brooks Brothers.
  13. ^ Fashion Encyclopedia, "Brooks Brothers".
  14. ^ "A Popular Shirt Tale". TIME. 1 September 1986. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  15. ^ Official Ralph Lauren history website: "1972".
  16. ^ "Dress Code", BURLEIGH HEADS GOLF CLUB
  17. ^ "Dress Code: Proper Golf Attire", Long Island National Golf Club
  18. ^ VnExpress. "Áo polo - trang phục kinh điển dành cho đàn ông". vnexpress.net (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  19. ^ "Lịch sử hình thành áo polo - Biểu tượng thời trang bất hữu". baodanang.vn. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  20. ^ "Gợi ý mẫu áo thun đồng phục có cổ đẹp cho doanh nghiệp". baodongnai.com.vn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  21. ^ thanhnien.vn. "'Đình đám' mùa thu đông 2023 với 5 trang phục phối cùng áo polo". thanhnien.vn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  22. ^ "Tự tin và chuyên nghiệp cùng BST Warm Up đến từ Đồng phục bốn mùa". VOV.VN (in Vietnamese). 29 September 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  23. ^ a b "Áo thun việt nam - Báo cáo xu hướng thị trường sàn TMĐT". metric.vn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  24. ^ Anh -, Nhĩ (5 August 2023). "Thương mại điện tử Việt Nam năm 2023 dự kiến đạt hơn 20 tỷ USD". Nhịp sống kinh tế Việt Nam & Thế giới (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  25. ^ "Dệt may đạt kỷ lục về thị trường xuất khẩu". Tạp chí Tài chính (in Vietnamese). 25 November 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  26. ^ "Xuất khẩu trên 40 tỷ USD, dệt may Việt Nam cập bến 104 thị trường toàn cầu". baodautu (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  27. ^ An, Hoàng (14 September 2023). "Teecharis". Tạp chí Kinh tế Sài Gòn (in Vietnamese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  28. ^ "Năm 2023, dệt may Việt Nam "bứt phá" về thị trường xuất khẩu". Người Đưa Tin (in Vietnamese). 24 November 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  29. ^ "BÁO CÁO XUẤT NHẬP KHẨU VIỆT NAM 2022" (PDF) (in Vietnamese). 24 November 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
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