Latest News

Photo courtesy DJ Scammell

Summer Casualwear

By Douglas James Scammell

Published 2:10 PDT, Fri July 18, 2025

Fashion For Men

During the warmer weather months of spring, summer, and early fall it is nice for a gentleman to have in their wardrobe a casual day shirt that is comfortable, breathable, as well as stylish. A great shirt that is perfect for all of the following: casual Fridays at the office, an outdoor barbeque gathering, relaxing on the patio enjoying a glass of rose wine, or playing outdoors sports that require you to wear a shirt with a collar such as golf, tennis and even a game of polo. I can not think of a better, more iconic shirt style than the Lacoste polo shirt.

History

The polo shirt also known as the tennis shirt or golf shirt, is a form of shirt with a collar that is made out of knitted cotton.

Polo shirts are usually short sleeved but can also be available in long sleeved; they were originally used by polo players in India as far back as 1859 and eventually made their way to Great Britain during the 1920’s.

Polo players: Polo players wore thick long sleeved shirts made of Oxford cloth cotton. The shirt was the first to have a button down collar

Tennis players: During the 19th century and early 20th Century tennis players ordinarily wore shirts called tennis whites that consisted of long sleeved white button up shirts worn with the sleeves rolled up along with flannel trousers and ties. This attire presented problems for ease of play and player comfort.

Rene Lacoste was a French 7 time tennis grand slam champion. He felt that stiff tennis attire was too cumbersome and uncomfortable. He got the idea from the polo shirts and had a shirt designed that was white short sleeved, loosely knit pique cotton shirt with an unstarched, flat protruding collar, a button placket, and a shirt tail a bit longer in the back than in the front (known today as a tennis tail), which he first wore at the 1926 U.S. Open championship.

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”, a nickname which he embraced.

As a result the polo shirt that Rene Lacoste designed and wore playing tennis solved all the problems players had with previous worn shirts ultimately, helping improve their performance of playing the sport.

In 1933, after Rene Lacoste retired from professional tennis. Lacoste teamed up with friend Andre Gillier who was a clothing merchandiser to market the Lacoste polo shirt in Europe and North America. As a result forming the company Chemise Lacoste, they began selling their shirts which all included the small embroidered crocodile logo on the left chest.

Golf players: By the 1940’s the professional golfers began to wear the polo style shirt for the same reason that tennis made the switch. The only difference, professional golfers wore dress pants. Golfer Harry Picard in 1948 was the first player to win the masters championship wearing a polo style shirt. That led to all of golf's all-time greats to wear a polo shirt in one shape or form from Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and the present day golf greats.

Legacy and present day: As a result today the Lacoste brand is still going very strong and is part of high end designer fashion but the shirts that made them the icon they are today are still available and are as popular as ever before.

Available for both men and women: Throughout the decades since the Lacoste brand was formed and especially into the 1960’s the polo shirt was very popular with celebrities like Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, John Wayne and many others.

Today there are also many other brands of shirts that make polo shirts that are similar to the iconic Lacoste polo shirt. The most famous competitor was created by Ralph Lauren in 1972 who’s polo shirts I would argue, are just as iconic and popular as the Lacoste polo shirt but instead of the alligator logo there is a Polo player riding a horse.

The polo shirt goes great with shorts, or chino pants, and as well as jeans. You can even pair it with a sport coat blazer giving it a more dressy evening look if you choose.

Whether it is a Lacoste or Ralph Lauren polo shirt or one of the many other competitors, it is a style of shirt that has survived the test of time and is for sure to be a classic for generations to come that is very versatile and a great value that you will wear over and over again.