Oh, by the way, you can easily get Smedley polos from ebay.co.uk at very reasonable prices, ~half retail for Lacoste.
I like the cotton lisle shirts and don't particularly want to serve as an advert for RL but his cotton lisle shirts are superbly made of a very thick luxe fabric. Usually 30 bucks at an off price store. their quality won me over. I hae a better Lacoste made in France from 10 years ago but have never seen the same lisle fabric since.
I've never seen a huge range of difference in standard pique polos, other than their pattern they were cut from which makes one fit better than another.
But the Fred Perry Italian knit polos are IMO a "really nice polo shirt". The fit is great, the fabric feels wonderful, and the designs are right up my alley. They cost a bit more, at $200.
What about the revamped Penguin polos?
Here's another source of reasonably priced Smedleys:
John Smedley Factory Shop
Lea Mills, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 5AG
Open every day 10:00 - 16:00
Tel 01629 530 426
John Smedley - Factory Shop - Armthorpe
1 Rands Lane, Armthorpe, Doncaster,
South Yorshire DN3 3DZ
Open Mon - Thurs 10:00 - 15:30
Fri & Sat 9:30 - 15:00
Closed Mon 28th August, Sat 21st Oct - Sun 29th Oct,
Sat 23rd Dec - Tues 2nd Jan 2007 inclusive
Tel 01302 832 346
http://www.john-smedley.com/shop/
Pre-1990 Duck Head polos were good from J.Simons, but they did have the logo...
(Sorry, I just felt the need to show off)
Where's my drink?
RL does do both pique and lisle. Don't know about Lacoste today. Mine was from several years ago. I've read that today many are not even made in France.
Brooks Brothers makes a very nice, logo-less polo in white and navy with all of the "correct" details and a chest pocket, if you like that sort of thing. I do.
Sorry, that was awkwardly phrased. The polos I mentioned are available in solid white or solid navy.
Most of the BB polos have no pocket and do have a chest logo--these are a little different.
Actually, now that I think of it, there are logos on these shirts, but they are small, the same color as the shirt, and located at the bottom front corner of the shirt.
It took me months to notice it was there.
I had a thread which I rejected because my thinking was far too muddy on the subject even by my standards on the difference between Casual/Smart and Smart/Casual. Polos featured heavily.
Between Casual and Smart is this fascinating area of playing with the boundaries of both concepts which can be very creative & interesting.
Are you dressing up or dressing down?
And are your clothes casually smart or smartly casual?
I still can't express what I'm aiming for on this. As ever with me, words fail me or I fail them (probably the latter), but...
Nope.
There's an idea there, but it eludes me.
Polos are great for playing with the boundaries - That's about as much as I can say on this.
j.