Tennis Shirt

A tennis shirt, also called a polo shirt or a golf shirt, is a T-shaped shirt with a collar, (typically) two or three buttons down a slit below the collar, two small slits on the bottom of either side, and an optional pocket. Today, they are often made of cotton, silk, or even merino wool. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Tennis balls This article is about the sport, tennis. ... Polo (also known as Cho-gan) is a team game played on a field with one goal for each team. ... Golfer teeing off at the start of a hole Golf is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs. ... Business shirt A shirt is a piece of clothing for the trunk of the body. ... Cotton is a soft fiber that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. ... Silk weaver Silk is a natural protein fiber that can be woven into textiles. ...

History

Origins in tennis

In the nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, tennis players ordinarily wore long-sleeved shirts, trousers, and ties. As one might expect, this attire presented several problems for ease of play and comfort on the court. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Look up Pants on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Pants are clothing for the body below the waist, a must for modesty regardless of gender; the term is an abbreviation of pantaloons, a puzzling plurale tantum as it comes from the French pantalon, stemming via the buffoonish commedia dellarte-character... Modern neckties, shown here tied as if they were on a person, may be found in a vast range of colours and designs. ... A tennis courts dimension A tennis court is where a game of tennis is played. ...

Rene Lacoste, the French 7-time Grand Slam tennis champion, was very keen to these problems. He decided that the stiff dress shirts and ties of the day were simply too cumbersome and uncomfortable for the tennis court. Instead, he designed a loosely-knit pique cotton shirt with an un-starched, flat protruding collar and a longer shirt-tail in back than in front (known today as a "tennis tail"; see below). This design came to be known as the tennis shirt. Lacoste's design called for a particularly thick pique collar that one would wear upturned in order to block the sun from one's neck. Categories: 1904 births | 1996 deaths | French tennis players | Sportspeople stubs ... Grand Slam is a general sports term applied when achieving something special. ... Pique was the mascot of the FIFAs football World Cup held in Mexico in 1986. ... Generally, a collar is something which goes around the neck. ... An upturned collar is just what it sounds like - an otherwise flat, protruding collar of either a shirt, jacket, or coat that has been turned upward. ... The Sun is the star at the centre of our Solar system. ... The neck is the part of the body on many limbed vertebrates that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk. ...

Application to polo and other sports

Before Lacoste’s 1929 invention of the tennis shirt, polo players wore thick long-sleeve shirts made of Oxford-cloth cotton. Interestingly, this shirt was the first to have a button-down collar, which polo players invented in the late nineteenth century to keep their collars from flapping in the wind (Brooks Brothers still produces this same style of "polo shirt"). Still, those clothes presented a discomfort on the field, and when polo players became aware of Lacoste’s invention in the 1930s they readily adopted it for use in polo. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 ( 2001 census). ... Wind is the quasi-horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by Howard Sterns asshole. ... Brooks Brothers is the oldest surviving mens clothier in the United States. ...

Over the latter half of the twentieth century, as standard clothing in golf became more casual, the tennis shirt became adopted nearly universally as standard golf attire. Very few golfers today wear anything else. Moreover, producing Lacoste’s "tennis shirt" in various golf cuts has resulted in specific designs of the tennis shirt for golf, resulting in the monicker "golf shirt".

In 1967, Ralph Lauren, when his name was still "Ralph Lifschitz" included his "polo shirt" as a prominent part of his original line called Polo. While not specifically geared for use by polo players, Lauren’s shirt imitated what was by that time normal attire for polo players. As he desired to exude a certain "waspishness" in his clothes, initially adopting the style of clothiers like Brooks Brothers, J. Press, and "Savile Row"-style English clothing, he prominently included this attire from the "sport of kings" in his line, replete with a logo reminiscent of Lacoste’s crocodile emblem. This worked well as a marketing tool, for subsequently, due to the immense popularity of Lauren’s clothing, a majority of English-speaking westerners began to refer to Lacoste’s tennis shirt as a "polo shirt". Still, “tennis shirt” remains a viable term for all uses of Lacoste’s basic design. Ralph Lauren (born Ralph Lipschitz, October 14, 1939, Bronx, New York) is a world-famous fashion designer. ... Polo Ralph Lauren is one of the many brands of clothing designed by Ralph Lauren, a fashion designer. ... WASP (an acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is a term that denotes the culture, customs, and heritage of the American élite Establishment. ... J. Press is a mens clothier in the United States. ... Savile Row Savile Row Savile Row is a road in the City of Westminster in central London that runs parallel to Regent Street between Conduit Street at the northern end and Vigo Street at the southern. ... Genera Crocodylus Osteolaemus Tomistoma See full taxonomy. ... An emblem consists of a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept - often a concept of a moral truth or an allegory. ...

Today

Since 1929, the tennis shirt has become an incredibly popular article of clothing. Virtually every major clothier makes some version or variation of Lacoste's tennis shirt. A plethora of athletic and non-athletic uses exist for the shirt.

The most common way to wear a tennis shirt is with the top button undone only and with an optional T-shirt underneath for warmth. One can find them in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Wide horizontal stripes are common, as are shirts of a pattern. Due to the outdoor nature of the sports with which they are associated, the shirts are often made of "natural" colors. For tennis, one would normally wear a brighter-colored shirt, most often white. T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ...

As in Lacoste’s original shirt, sometimes a tennis shirt is cut so that the back hangs a few centimeters lower than the front. As noted above, this is called a “tennis tail”. The longer cut is designed to keep the shirt tucked into the back of a man's tennis shorts when he is bent over to survey the court. The easily-upturnable collar remains another athletic aid.

Although the shirt continues a vast use in atletics, used even by non-atheletes associated with a given sport in their employment, such as caddies, some retired golf professionals, and sports announcers. In golf, caddy (or caddie) is the person who carries a players bag, and gives insightful advice and moral support. ... In golf the distinction between amateurs and professionals in rigourously maintained. ...

It is also a favored shirt for those working outside, such as groundskeepers and construction workers due to its ruggedness. During the 1990's, the tennis shirt became the standard informal business attire for the high tech industry. In the People's Republic of China, most younger government officials wear a tennis shirt (sometimes made of silk) as standard business attire.

In many schools with a uniform, especially junior schools, tennis shirts are part of a compulsory uniform for both boys and girls. This article concerns how a man differs from women. ... Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ...

In contemporary Western fashion, these shirts are considered more casual than woven button-down shirts and dressier than t-shirts.

External links

• Official Site of Lacoste
• Official Site of Polo Ralph Lauren