Pique Performance: A Guide to the Polo Shirt

 In the warmer months, polo shirts become as ubiquitous as sunburn, dodgy flip-flops and Aperol spritz. Where the rugby shirt dominates any sporting casual look a good nine months of the year, in the summer, polos reign supreme. Yet a good quality polo is surprisingly hard to find. The correct cut, fabric, fit, and distinct lack of gaudy detailing makes for a rare beast, which is why we decided to make our own.

A polo shirt is one which is made of a knitted cloth, with short sleeves, and a stiff collar, usually found in piqué cotton, though they can also be found in fine wool or even silk. Occupying the space between an Oxford and a T-shirt, the characteristics which make the polo definitively so are the functional aspects brought about by it’s inception. 

In the early 20th century, the game of tennis was played in “tennis whites”: a kit consisting of a long sleeved white button up shirt, a sweater, white flannel trousers and even ties. Whilst this may still be the most sartorially elegant garb to play the game, it became clear by the mid 1920s that there had to be a way of refining and redesigning the humble shirt to one which could befit one’s performance. 

Enter René Lacoste. Considering the current attire stiff and cumbersome, Lacoste devised a loosely knit piqué cotton, which he referred to as jersey petit piqué, into a shirt with an unstarched, protruding, flat collar, longer shirt-tail and a short buttoned placket. Premiering his creation at the 1926 US Open championship, and a year later embellishing his work with a crocodile emblem, a homage to his nickname in the press. 

René Lacoste, ca. 1920s

Aside from becoming Grand Slam tennis champion seven times, Le Crocodile also created a style staple. A garment which mitigated all problems derived from the current attire at the time, the short sleeves, with a cuff to hug the arm, eliminated the tendency for the sleeves to roll down with a back-hand, the “tennis tail” at the back of the shirt stopped one’s shirt from coming untucked during a swift rally, and the collar, crafted from that same breathable piqué, but designed to be upturned when necessary to avoid the sun. 

When Lacoste retired from professional tennis in 1933, he went into business marketing the shirt, to great success with La Société Chemise Lacoste. The reason for the nickname of polo is derived from the popularity of the shirt with polo players, who beforehand wore a Oxford shirt, with it’s button-down collar lent from polo players via Brooks Brothers.

However, this, and the adaption of the moniker in the 1970s by Ralph Lauren, ensured that the name stuck, and notwithstanding the fact that it was used for tennis before polo, the shirt took the latter’s name and the misnomer is preferred today. The polo shirt is used in the game of golf as well, with the addition of a patch pocket on the breast, to hold a score-card and pencil, and so is sometimes referred to as such.

For our polo, we did away with any pocket or logo for something less gauche, equally as versatile, and more likely to pass muster when worn with tailoring. We made it from a classic pique cotton; a hard-wearing fabric that ages beautifully with exposure to the sun, and opted for over-dyed colours to make better use of the unique patina that comes with everyday wear - this is a perennial garment, after all. Something to be worn in and worn out, at least while the weather holds. 

SHOP POLO SHIRTS