The polo shirt took one of the shortest routes from sport to street of anything in the wardrobe. Ninety odd years and it has gone from a French tennis court to a Wigan dancefloor to a stag do in Benidorm. That last stop has done it no favours at all, and it is why a lot of people who should own three good ones own none.
There is a proper way to buy one. We move a fair number of polo shirts and we have watched the same handful of mistakes repeat for years, almost all of them about fabric and sleeve length.
Rene Lacoste and the Shirt That Replaced Tennis Whites
Until the mid twenties, tennis was played in a long sleeved woven shirt with a stiff collar, sleeves rolled to the elbow and occasionally a tie still on. Rene Lacoste, who won seven Grand Slam singles titles and picked up the nickname the Crocodile after a bet with his Davis Cup captain over an alligator skin suitcase, had had enough of it. He cut himself a short sleeved shirt in a loosely knitted cotton with a soft ribbed collar and a short buttoned placket, and first wore it at the US Championships in 1926. The crocodile went onto the chest the following year.
The commercial version followed in 1933, sold in France with the crocodile stitched onto the chest, which made it one of the first garments anywhere to carry a visible maker's mark on the outside. Everything since is a variation. The ribbed collar, the placket, the longer tail at the back so it stayed tucked during a serve. Ninety years on, we are still selling the same three ideas, and the only real change is that the cotton got better.
Pique, Fine Knit and Jersey
Three fabrics, and the difference between them is structural, not decorative. Pique is a knit with a raised waffle texture, tiny squares or diamonds you can feel under a thumb. There is air trapped in it, so it breathes, holds its shape and hides a crease. Fine knit, sometimes sold as fine gauge, is a flatter and tighter knit with far more drape, and it is what people mean by a knitted polo. Jersey is a plain single knit, smooth and thin, the same construction as a t shirt, and it is what nearly every promotional polo in Britain is made from.
We would avoid jersey entirely. It has no body, the collar starts curling within a fortnight of the first wash, and it hangs off the shoulders like a bin liner in a breeze. Pique for warm weather and anything outdoors, ideally somewhere around 200 to 220gsm so it has a bit of substance. Fine knit for everything else, all year round.
The Knitted Polo Is the Mod and Northern Soul Choice
Gabicci started in London in 1973 and built its name on a knitted polo with a contrast panel across the chest, usually suede or velour, sometimes a bank of stripes. The timing was almost comic. Wigan Casino opened its all nighters the same year, and the knitted polo, a pair of Sta Press trousers and a pair of loafers became close to a uniform on that floor, because you could spin in it for six hours and it did not cling or wring out.
Knitted polos still do the same job. What you want is a fine gauge with a ribbed hem that sits on the waistband instead of dropping below it, and enough weight in the knit that the collar stands up on its own without help. Gabicci Vintage remains the benchmark, though the contrast panel versions split our customers more than anything else we sell.
Picking the Fabric for the Occasion
Most people own one polo and try to make it do everything, which is why it always looks slightly wrong. The fabric decides the season and the trousers decide the rest.
| Fabric | Feel | Best season | Wears with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pique cotton | Textured and airy | Late spring into summer | Sta Press, loafers, deck shoes |
| Fine gauge knit | Flat, soft, good drape | All year | Tonic trousers, monkey boots |
| Jersey | Thin and smooth | None we would recommend | Nothing we would sign off |
| Wool blend knit | Dense and warm | Autumn into winter | Suit trousers under a jacket |
The one line worth taking away is that a knitted polo can be dressed up and a pique one cannot. Put a fine gauge knit under a suit jacket and it reads as deliberate. Put a pique one under the same jacket and it reads as golf.
Tipping, Stripes and Where to Stop
Tipping is the contrast band at the collar edge and cuff. Two narrow lines in a single accent colour is the classic and it has never dated. Three or more bands, in three or more colours, and you are in rugby club raffle territory.
Horizontal stripes are the other traditional route and the thing to judge is width. Bold block stripes of two to three inches read straight sixties and sit well on a broad frame. Fine stripes under half an inch look sharper. Lambretta polos tend towards the bolder end of that range, which is rather the point of them. Chest panels are the third option and the hardest to get right, because a contrast panel splits the torso horizontally and shortens anybody under about five foot eight. Whichever you pick, one stripe direction per outfit. A striped polo with a striped jacket is a headache waiting to happen.
Sleeves, Cuffs and the Collar Stand
A polo sleeve should finish halfway down the bicep with a bit of room around the arm. Not at the elbow, and not hauled up into the armpit either. Anything past the elbow immediately reads as a badly sized t shirt with a collar sewn on, which is a hard look to recover from.
The cuff should be ribbed and banded so it grips the arm instead of hanging flat like a tee, because a hemmed sleeve on a polo flaps about and ages the whole shirt. As for the collar, the stand needs to be tall enough and dense enough to hold itself upright when the placket is open. If it flops the moment you take it off the hanger, the knit is too loose, and no amount of ironing or starch will fix a fault built into the yarn.
Buttons, Sizing and What Happens in the Wash
Two or three buttons on the placket, and never fasten the top one unless you are wearing a tie, which almost nobody should be with a polo. Do fasten the two below it. An open placket flapping around, with the buttons swinging loose, is the quickest way to look like you have wandered in off a beach.
- Buy to a chest measurement rather than a label letter. Knitted polos are cut closer than pique and frequently run a size small.
- Cotton pique around 220gsm will lose roughly three percent across the chest on a first 40 degree wash. Wash it at 30 and it barely shifts.
- Wool blend knits want a cold wool cycle and drying flat. A tumble dryer will felt them and there is no route back from that.
- If you are between sizes and plan to layer it under a polo cardigan or a jacket, take the smaller one.
Then the bottom half sorts itself out. Sta Press or tonic trousers hemmed with no break at all, or the very slightest one, a pair of loafers or a low boot, and the shirt has done everything you need it to do.
Polo Shirt FAQ
Five points that decide whether a polo works or not.
- What is the difference between a knitted polo and a pique polo? A knitted polo is made on a fine gauge knitting machine and has a flat surface with plenty of drape. Pique is a textured waffle knit with air in it, so it is cooler and holds a crisper shape. Knitted is the mod and Northern Soul option, pique is the summer one.
- Should you button a polo shirt to the top? Only if you are wearing a tie with it, which is a specialist look. Leave the top open and fasten the rest. A fully undone placket flaps about and drags the whole outfit down.
- Do polo shirts shrink? Cotton ones do, by around three percent on a first hot wash, mostly across the chest. Wash at 30 degrees and hang dry to keep most of that. Wool blends will felt permanently in a tumble dryer.
- How long should polo shirt sleeves be? Halfway down the bicep, with room to move. Past the elbow and it looks like an oversized tee. A ribbed banded cuff beats a plain hem, because a hemmed sleeve flaps about and ages the whole shirt.
- Can you wear a polo shirt with a suit? A fine gauge knitted one, yes, and it looks properly considered under a two or three button jacket. A pique polo under a suit jacket does not work and never has. Keep pique for casual trousers.