The polo shirt improves its performance
THE TRADITIONAL polo shirt began life in
the late 19th century as, appropriately, a polo
shirt, popularized in India and transported to
colonial Britain by polo players. ;e white
Oxford-cloth cotton shirts were designed
with long sleeves and button-down collars to
keep them from ;apping in the faces of players as they were riding in the wind.
In the early 20th century, French seven-time Grand Slam champion René Lacoste set
out to design more comfortable tennis wear,
based on the long-sleeve polo shirt. Lacoste’s
short-sleeve design featured a small ribbed
protruding collar that was le; unstarched,
short sleeves with ribbed bands, a buttoned
placket and an elongated shirttail that would
not pull out during vigorous physical exertion. He ;rst wore the shirt at the 1926 U.S.
Open Championship and began to market
the design a;er retiring and forming the company Chemise Lacoste.
;e next stage in the shirt’s evolution has
been the development of the performance polo.
“We’re seeing performance fabrics making their way into a lot of apparel, particularly
in polo shirts,” says Costco buyer Dorothy
Weissman. Typically these shirts feature mois-ture-wicking properties and some polyester
to provide easy-care, no-iron maintenance.
Some performance fabrics also incorporate
UPF sun protection. A “plated” collar that
won’t curl up around the edges and a long
shirttail that remains tucked in are features of
the higher-quality polos.
“One of the great things about these
shirts is that the new fabrics let designers
work in a much wider variety of colors and
patterns,” says Dorothy. “;is means that the
shirts can be used for more than just golf or
tennis, and will look good in the o;ce or out
on the town.”—T. Foster Jones
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By 1950 this shirt style was almost universally known as the polo shirt.
Polo shirts have been available in three
main styles stemming from Lacoste’s original
design: piqué, a durable garment fashioned in
a raised design; interlock, which feels so; and
;rm, with good elasticity; and lisle, which is
made by combing and then tightly twisting
long-staple cotton ;bers into two-ply yarn
that imparts a very silky, so; texture.
The Costco Connection
Costco is releasing a series of brand-name
performance polo shirts—including a
Kirkland Signature™ polo—over several
months: Greg Norman polo in January,
Hathaway and Adidas in March, Kirkland
Signature in April, Cutter & Buck in May
and Pebble Beach in June.
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