There's at least one polo shirt thread in the archives. I very much doubt whether modern day Lacoste gets a mention, although to be fair some of the ones I see around don't look particularly bad.

I spent most of the last 3 years in polos due to being in a hot climate (where dressing up is frowned on). When I had to replenish my stock I bought Sunspel and Spier and MacKay (the latter made in China or somewhere similar but still pretty decent). Which I mixed with Smedleys and Perrys I bought 15 to 20 years ago and that have yet to fall apart. I also have one Lacoste - NOS from the 70s or 80s.

Last edited by Yuca (2021-09-14 08:52:16)

They're probably still decent but it may well be impossible to find the good ones at reasonable prices.

I don't have any Lacoste polo shirts but a couple of superb made in France jumpers. As I am retired I don't often wear OCBDs . My everyday polo shirts are the made in England Fred Perry's. I've kept my Smedley shirts for 'best' which means I hardly ever wear them. I'm not as anti logo as I used to be and have a nostalgic attachment to the Fred Perry logo

In my 40 odd years of experience with Lacoste, the quality has been pretty much even throughout.

I agree about RL when made in the USA.  My old Dad gave me a couple of polo shirts, one navy, the other maroon, he'd brought back from one of his stateside trips.  He used to go and see his mate in Hartford about once every three years and blow his cash on cut-outs in New York and odd bits of clothing; sometimes shoes (Timberland; first time I'd seen them, around 1989).  I used to wear them with cheap L.L. Bean jeans and those much-loved bucks I had for next to nothing from Russell Street because they'd been in the window and the sun had marked them.  Did I worry?

Some of us on here really like a baggier fit, Robbie.  Smedley always seemed a bit too close-fitting although the cotton felt very smooth, even luxurious.  I suppose, in fact, it was exactly that.  Does anyone think Fred Perry quickly acquired a bad name for themselves?  JS once sold me about half a dozen jumpers without any logo that smelled just like my old cub jumpers from around 1967.  Re-sold online.

I like the baggie fit myself but the shirts are L/XL 1990s sizing and I'm a medium/large. Agree with you on the Smedley sizing. I started buying larger sizing Smedleys when my missus started wearing my tighter jumpers.
The Fred Perry brand did acquire a bad name. Not sure when? My first FP was as a kid in the early 60s. I have a treasured photo of me, my brother, my dad and his workmate all wearing FPs in about 1964. The brand has an emotional attachment for me.

I paused outside the Lacoste shop just off the M1 on Saturday afternoon.  It looked dull as ditchwater.  Might take a run up to the Smedley factory shop in a week or so.  I'll have a look round Nottingham - maybe even drop in at Smalley's - next Tuesday.  Looking for Made In England Grenfell coats - vintage - maybe the odd shirt or item of knitwear.  Must be made in England/Italy/USA/France.  Wouldn't mind another pair of tobacco-coloured desert boots (so long as they're not made in China or even Vietnam).  Regret now parting with the USA-made maroon and navy RL polo shirts I was given some dozen or so years ago.

I have a variety of Polo's that I wear during the summer months, Lacoste, 80's RL's that are washed out and battered, Smedleys and a light blue Hartford purchased from JS around 30 years ago.
With regards to the Perry, there was a really good Sport Shop in the town where I live (long gone now) but I bought a couple from there, this would've been around 78/79. They were a lot different from the usual FP's that were about. Firstly the colours, all quite bright, secondly they had a longer tail, just like the RL's. The guy who ran the shop told me they were originally for the American market (how he got them I don't know) I bought 1 in a cherise/pink colour and the other in quite a bright Kelly green. Ended up giving them to my Dad, when I got sucked into the the Lacoste phase early 80's.

The little blue book The Ivy Look - the thoughts of Chairmen Marsh & Gaul and their thinking on the Lacoste Polo was  ‘The all cotton Lacoste tennis shirt with its cap sleeves, narrow collar and two button placket front is the Ivy sports shirt of choice’. I don’t know how this conclusion was reached, maybe their polos appear in old photos of Ivy leaguers? Quite likely as the brand has been going since the 1930s. They had it right though, the aesthetics of a navy blue Lacoste polo are somehow just right for me.

Like many, my starting point is to avoid logos, but the Lacoste crocodile, if you look at it closely, is a thing of beauty and it remains discrete and low key on their polo shirts which are still good quality and last if you wash and care for them properly. Despite their best efforts to popularise the brand the price point seems to stop the mass adoption and over selling we’ve seen with RL and lately Fred Perry. I’m open to correction but I don’t think Lacoste is yet on sale in TKMaax, which to me seems to be the sign that a brand is at its nadir. The only thing they make that I’m interested in is their polo shirts which I wear quite a lot at this time of year.
All hail the croc!

I bought a USA-made, all cotton polo recently which I've handed on to my daughter's Ukrainian house-guest, who arrived at Heathrow a few weeks ago with only a couple of suitcases.  White rather than navy. 
But they have an outlet at the horrifying 'McArthur Glen' retail outlet.  I visited that dreadful place once and once only, hovered near the door of the Lacoste shop, then turned and fled, heading to the nearest town for buttermilk and sticky Polish cake (pre-diet!). 
Beware, too, of polyester horrors being knocked up in China! 
I prefer Cross Creek (thanks to TRS for drawing these old Russell Street favourites to my attention), Peter Geeson and RL minus the pony.

Talking of polo shirts, I saw a mid-blue sea island cotton John Smedley yesterday at a very reasonable £7.99.  Twelve to fifteen years ago I would have eagerly bought it, but not now.  I used to like them with the old labels, including the 'Lea Mills' (don't know which decade it was from), but, as Chris_H once said, you've got to be in good condition to look good in sea island cotton.  I believe Chris and Jeff Dexter sometimes used to make the trip to Derbyshire in order to visit the Smedley factory shop. 
It was doubtless a tip-top name when Ian Strachan was selling it in Richmond.  I think it was sold for a while at Russell Street but Jeff Garet seemed slightly indifferent so perhaps someone at the alternative JS had done something to piss off The Guv'Nor.  I wouldn't actually know. 
As for Fred Perry, that's become too dicey for words during the past twenty five or so years, being worn by everyone from Man At C&A to visiting neo-Nazi boneheads.