It’s thought that in the early 19th century after being stationed in Manipur, India, the British military introduced a variation on the polo shirt to the UK. They were inspired by the dress shirts of Indian aristocrats who wore striped, hip-length, round-neck jerseys. In Britain, it soon became synonymous with royalty and the upper class, featuring among polo players as a long-sleeved cotton shirt.

One downside to the shirt was the collar flapped as polo players rode around. John E. Brooks of the American apparel company Brooks Brothers noticed that players fastened them with pins or buttons when he visited England in the late 1800s. On returning to the States, he introduced button-down collars onto all his dress shirts, introducing the first mass-marketed button-down polo shirt in 1896.

The piqué polo shirt that we know today is influenced more by the tennis court than the polo ground. A short-sleeved version with a top row of buttons and a collar was first designed for playing tennis in France in 1929 by tennis star René Lacoste. His design in classic white was initially intended only for himself so he decorated it with an embroidered crocodile over the left breast, reflecting his nickname. However, in the 1930s, his design sparked massive interest and the Lacoste polo shirt soon became a well-established article of clothing. In 1933, after retiring from professional tennis, Lacoste teamed up with André Gillier to market the shirt across Europe and North America.

In 1972, the first polo piqué by Polo Ralph Lauren was launched. This had a small embroidered polo player on the left chest and it quickly achieved similar cult status to the Lacoste design. The Ralph Lauren polo shirt is now one of the most famous polo shirts in the world.