The history of the polo shirt
The polo shirt is a form of casual shirt with collar, placket neckline with two or three button fastening. The polo shirts were used by, you might have guessed it, polo players originally in India back in 1859 and later in Great Britain during the 1920's.
The polo shirt as we know it today was first introduced in 1933 when "Le Crocodile",
Jean René Lacoste entered the centercourt with an improved tennis uniform. Monsieur Lacoste wore a pique cotton short-sleeve style shirt instead of the former popular and gauche longe-sleeved OCBD.
In 1951, the British tennis star Fred Perry launched his own version – a white polo branded with a laurel wreath, a logo inspired by the Wimbledon symbol. By now, both Lacoste and Fred Perry polos were seen worn under college sports jackets as part of a preppy uniform, this marked not only the shirt’s transition from an on-court fixture to an everyday staple, but also the start of a new fashion category –sportswear.
