Posts Tagged ‘clothes’
Collar Shirt
September 26th, 2011 Posted 10:27 pm
WHEN IS A POLO SHIRT NOT A POLO SHIRT?
When it comes to fashion branding, we can instantly form a picture in our minds when we’re told that someone is stepping out in Nikes, Levis and a polo shirt and flashing their Raybans. Many brand names have become synonymous with certain items of clothing – with the exception of polo shirts.
While mega brand, Ralph Lauren made the polo shirt famous, it has its origins in the sport of kings hundreds of years ago. Back in the 1800s, it is believed that polo players started wearing a special shirt with a button down collar which prevented the collar from flapping up in the wind. These were made from a thick knitted cotton and had long sleeves.
In the mid-1920s, an Argentinian haberdasher made an embroidered polo shirt with a polo player logo embroidered on it, which met the approval of the members of the Hurlingham Polo Club near Buenos Aires. Around the same time, polo players became aware of famous tennis star, Rene Lacoste’s invention of a white, unstarched, short-sleeved tennis shirt made of a loosely knit pique cotton with a thick flat collar to protect the neck from sunburn. Lacoste first wore his new design at the 1926 US Open Final and it soon became hugely popular.
So although a polo shirt has become universally associated with golf and tennis, it began on the turf of a polo field. The embroidered polo shirt became even bigger news when Ralph Lauren brought out a line of classics in 24 colours.
While the Ralph Lauren brand can’t claim fame for inventing the polo shirt, it has become a universally accepted template for brands to display their own logos and identity. Their fashion appeal, practicality and wearability makes them one of the world’s most popular promotional products. For best results, it’s advisable to use professionals to do the embroidery or screen printing so that a quality end-result is achieved. Not only do the wearers enjoy wearing it, but it also appeals to onlookers too – thereby extending the brand awareness..
There are many ways of applying logos to items namely digitising and embroidery, screen printing and transfer technology. A reputable promotional products company will be able to advise what technology will suit your product and your budget best. For example, when it comes to transferring images onto polo shirts, T-shirts and other items of clothing, there are advantages to each process, but one great advantage with embroidery over screen printing is that the price is calculated on the coverage of the design and not the colour, so one can use six colours in embroidery for the same price as one.
Not everyone will get to play polo, and not everyone will get to have a branded Ralph Lauren polo shirt. However, as polo shirts become the promotional products Perth of choice for more and more companies, more and more people will be lucky enough to have a polo of their own!