When someone says a polo shirt or a golf shirt, he or she would be referring to a tennis shirt. This type of t-shirt comes with a collar, a few buttons in the front slit and two side slits on the bottom. It may or may not have a pocket. The most commonly used knitted material to make a tennis shirt is pique cotton. Sometimes silk, merino wool or synthetic fibers are used.
The tennis shirt was not in this style back in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Former tennis players had to contend with formal attires such as long-sleeved shirts, trousers and ties, which were just not practical on the court. The attire, similar to what we wear to office today, was stiff and awkward to wear while playing tennis. Therefore, Rene Lacoste, who was a French 7-time Grand Slam tennis champion, took matters into his hands and created a new line of apparel, specially designed to wear on the tennis court. Named after himself, Lacoste, this new tennis shirt was un-starched, made of loosely knitted pique cotton and had a longer shirt tail at the back. Also, the tennis shirt had a upturnable collar intended to protect the neck from prolonged sun exposure. Interestingly, this type of collar design was already discovered by polo players in the late nineteenth century, before Lacoste invented his tennis shirt in 1929. The idea of button-down collar stemmed from the need to keep the collar of the polo shirt from flapping in the wind. However, generally a polo shirt was unpleasant to wear as it was made of Oxford-cloth cotton and had long sleeves. As a result, the polo players were more than happy to adapt their polo shirts to Lacoste’s creation in the 1930s.
Before long, the design of polo shirt and tennis shirt became the same. By the 1950s, polo shirts were deemed as part of the standard tennis attire in America. It was highly sought after. In fact, the tennis players also cite their court uniform as a polo shirt, although in reality, the t-shirt was initially designed for tennis and was only taken on by polo players a good many years later.
The t-shirt was made even more popular, thanks to Ralph Lauren. In 1967, he added a polo shirt into his already famous clothing line called Polo. However, his polo shirts were not meant to be worn by professional players. They were only imitations of the style of what the polo players were wearing at that time.
The subsequent sport that adopted the design of tennis shirt was golf. As golf attire evolved into a more laidback and less formal design in the twentieth century, golfers started to wear tennis shirts as well. In fact, we see that almost all the golfers in the modern days wear tennis shirts. Lady golf attire is more creative with different shades of colors. But the design for golf shirt is a bit different from tennis shirt as it has various golf cuts. Meanwhile, tennis shirts have evolved into its own clothing category of clothing due to its perpetual popularity. Both men and women today wear it as daily attire. When round-neck T-shirts are considered too casual and official business wear too formal, many semi-professional and retail workers find tennis shirts favorable. As a result, almost every major clothing producer has come up with some kind of imitations of Lacoste’s tennis shirts. Today, people regard tennis shirts as smart casual wear.
Tennis shirt is suitable for outdoor activities too because its texture is tough and flexible. Those in the professions as field guides and laborers, for example, like to wear tennis shirt to work. Gradually, the high tech industry also made tennis shirt its standard work uniform during the 1990s. To make it more official looking, a company logo is usually stitched on the tennis shirt. In India, some government departments have adopted tennis shirts as uniforms for their officials.
Many schools, in particular junior schools, are adopting tennis shirts as their mandatory uniforms, for both boys and girls alike. Tennis shirts are even more popular in sports, widely worn by officials such as caddies, retired golf experts, umpires and sports announcers as part of their work attire. Since tennis shirts are very commonly associated with outdoor or sports activities, they come in different shades of light colors. For instance, white is typically used in tennis.
The modern tennis shirt still retains the original design of Lacoste’s, whereby the back of the t-shirt is longer by a few centimeters than the front. This is known as a tennis tail. The back is longer so that when the tennis player bends forward, the shirt will not come out of his shorts easily. Besides that, the flat protruding collar is meant to protect the tennis player’s neck from constant exposure to the sun.
The tennis shirt or polo shirt will continue to occupy a niche in the fashion industry, regardless of the changing trends and times. It has become an essential wear in our daily lives.