It Started on Horseback
The polo shirt has its origins on the polo field in British India in the 1800s, where players wore long-sleeved shirts that were poorly suited to the demands of the game. The collars flapped, the sleeves restricted movement, and the fabrics did not breathe. Players began pinning their collars down to solve the most obvious problem — and in doing so, created the visual language that would eventually define an entirely new category of clothing.
The short-sleeved, soft-collared shirt we now recognise as the polo shirt emerged gradually through the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Its defining feature — the soft, buttoned collar — was functional before it was fashionable. It stayed flat at speed. It was the garment equivalent of an engineering solution.
The Transition to Lawn Tennis and Beyond
The polo shirt's move into wider sport began when tennis players adopted a version of the design. The stiff white shirts worn on tennis courts were hot and restrictive, and the softer, more breathable polo collar offered an obvious improvement. René Lacoste is often credited with popularising the design in tennis during the 1920s — his subsequent commercialisation of the garment brought it to a mainstream audience for the first time.
From tennis, the polo shirt spread to golf, sailing, and eventually to everyday casual wear. By the mid-twentieth century, it had become one of the most recognisable casual garments in the Western wardrobe — worn by students, executives, and sportsmen alike, with almost no remaining connection to the sport it was named after.
Fashion Took the Name, the Field Kept the Standard
The irony of the polo shirt's history is that the more successful it became as a fashion item, the less it resembled what polo players actually needed. Mass market versions were cut shorter, made from lighter fabrics, and styled for casual wear rather than athletic performance. The collar — once a piece of functional engineering — became a style element. The sport itself became branding.
For players who actually compete, this created a genuine gap. The shirts that carried the heritage and the status had been optimised for wardrobes, not for matches. That is the gap that Polistas was built to close — producing authentic polo clothing that honours the functional origins of the garment, not just its aesthetic legacy.
Where the Polo Shirt Belongs
There is room for fashion polo in the world. But there is also a case for a polo shirt that does what it was originally designed to do — perform in the sport it was named after. At Polistas, that case is the only one we are interested in making. Every shirt we produce is designed for the field first, and made to a standard that means it holds up well off it too. Explore the Polistas collection or read our story to understand where we come from.