What's The Real Story?

I often ask myself silly question. Tonight I asked myself, "what is the history of the polo shirt?" I know the generic version that most of us have read at polo.com, but that was not the answer I was looking for. I decided to look into it, and I have found something interesting. It appears that Ralph Lauren did not come up with the concept of this logo. But more on that subject later.

In the 1800s, sports teams began to wear knitted shirts at football (soccer), rowing matches, and other sporting events. Though they were longed sleeved they shared one feature with today’s polo shirt, knitted material. In the 19th century entrepreneurs redesigned the jerseys and called them polo shirts. With print ads appearing in the Maryland papers as early as 1887.

In 1923 a member of the Hurlingham Polo Team in Buenos Aires played a match wearing a polo shirt. Now as to why RL did not invent the logo that dons most of his clothing and has made him a multi-millionaire. In 1920 an Irish born gentlemen and polo player named Lewis Lacey opened a clothing store in Buenos Aries. The polo shirts that were found on the racks of his store depicted a polo player on a pony. Within a few years moneyed gentry began donning custom-made polo shirts as leisure wear on the French Riviera and at other international watering spots. Sound familiar?

On another blog I talked about the Lauren Empire, and how the corporation has scout who troll the antique shops of the world for new ideas. It is also rumored that Empire purchased the wardrobe of a Duke, and this is where the Entire Purple Label collection was designed from, but that is just a rumor, and I have yet to find anything on that. Don’t get me wrong, I like most of his collection. But it just goes to show that you do not have to have much of an imagination to become a millionaire and live the American dream.