So the rules when wearing a polo collar like this? My answer is sometimes. But a pop collar in this situation, I’m gonna say no. And the double-popped collar is a no. So are there situations in which it is perfectly fine to pop your collar? My answer is yes. You’re outside sailing, you’re outside playing tennis, and you’re in the sun, and you want to protect your neck from the elements. Pop the collar, and protect your neck. Okay. It’s serving a functional purpose and discuss about Lacoste Polo Shirts.
How to wear Lacoste Polo Shirts Men?
Now, some of you guys may be wondering, well, what’s even the big deal? Why are we even talking about this? Well, for a lot of people, when they see the popped collar, for them, it signals a guy that’s going to be obnoxious. He’s going to be snooty. He’s going to be some upper-high class or at least trying to act like some high-class guy. Now, speaking of collars, the bigger mistake I see a lot of guys make when they’re wearing a polo is they wear a collar that hasn’t been pressed. Seriously. The collar is all wrinkled up. It looks like a piece of bacon. And they think, hey, well, it’s a soft collar. That’s how it’s made to be. No, that is the sign of a poor-quality polo. I take that back. It could have been an expensive polo that you left too long in the dryer. The point is you don’t want that collar to look bad. A polo, yes, is going to have a soft collar in general, but it doesn’t mean that you want to have it wrinkled. You want to have it flopping all over the place. Now, an easy way to fix this is to pull your polo out of the dryer before it is fully dry. And go ahead and lay it out. Make maybe use a starch, use a bit of water, lay that collar straight, and just iron it.
Now, if that just sounds like too much work, or you want a polo shirt whose collar always looks great, you need to check out Lacoste polo shirts. I’ve worked with Lacoste multiple times because I love what these guys are doing. They are innovating the polo shirt because they got tired of all these polo shirts with really bad collars, so they created the shirt that looks like a dress shirt, has the collar of a dress shirt, has that beautiful, strong front placket. But, guys, this is a comfortable polo shirt that you can wear all day. No issues when I say issues, because think about it. With a dress shirt, you can get something that’s constricting, something that’s tight. This right here has a four-way stretch fabric that’s breathable, that wicks away moisture from the body. And again, it maintains that strong collar throughout the day. And in case you missed the shark tank, these guys crushed it.
I know that most guys just want to look good. You want a polo shirt that you can layer that you can wear with a sports jacket, you can wear with a suit, or you can just wear it with shorts. Guess what? Lacoste, their shirts do all of this. So if you want an English spread, if you want a semi-spread, if you want an Oxford button and down or you want a cutaway collar, they’ve got you covered. If you haven’t been over to the website lately, you want to check out all of the new styles, all the new patterns, and all the new colors. I mean, guys, you can see on one of the most important days of my life, my daughter Marina’s baptist. What am I rocking right here? Lacoste. Oh, and if you’re a traveler, you’re going to love the fact that they are wrinkle-resistant. You can pull these right out of your bag. You don’t have to iron them because let’s just face it, it can be a pain in the butt when you’re traveling. Guys, if you are looking for the perfect collared shirt that you can dress up, you can dress down, you can wear it with a variety of outfits. Guys, go over to Lacoste.com.
How to Style A Polo Shirt The Right Way?
Now, this next mistake is really small, but I’ve seen guys make it, and it just ruins the look whether they’re layering it, or whether they are wearing that polo shirt by itself. Guys, if you’re going to wear an undershirt, I get why guys would wear an undershirt with a polo because a polo is going to be more expensive. Maybe you don’t want your nipples showing. Yeah, I get it. Wear a deep v-neck undershirt or at least a V-neck undershirt. Don’t go with a crew neck undershirt because you’re wearing that dark blue polo. All of a sudden. Do you see that wide in there? I am wearing a V-neck undershirt underneath this. If you’re going to wear an undershirt, you don’t want it sticking out from underneath the polo.
Next up, let’s talk about fit. If the polo doesn’t fit you guys either, if it’s too big and you paid a lot of money for it and you can’t return it, take it to get it adjusted, small darts put on the back there can bring it in. But you want to make sure when you buy something that it fits you well. The most important place to check is going to be the shoulder points. You can bring in something, but polos you really can’t let out. There’s not going to be excess material. So if it’s too tight anywhere, if it’s too tight in the chest, definitely too tight in the stomach, maybe it’s too tight in the arms, you are going to want to return and find a brand that works for your build. And by the way, if you’ve got really thin arms, you can get a polo adjusted on the arms. They can bring it in inside, and it will look better on thinner arms. That being said, I do find that layering Apollo, and we can talk about that. You need to know how to layer a polo properly. One of the biggest mistakes I see guys make is they don’t experiment, they don’t have fun. They only wear the polo by itself, maybe with shorts or a pair of chinos.
Guys, there are so many ways to dress it up and dress it down with other items in your wardrobe. Seriously, dressing up with a sports jacket, as you can see, I’m doing it in this post. I went with Brown. I find that it works. Again, you’ve probably got already some sports jackets in your wardrobe. That’s why I recommend when you go with the polo, go with a simple, solid color. When you’re starting, white is easy to match with pretty much anything. But I could be wearing a white polo right here. Boom. As you can see, brought in a white polo, and instantly we get a higher contrast, it pops. And what’s nice about this is white is going to be one of the more formal colors. So you can even wear this with a suit. You can go wear it in a casual suit. You can wear it with a blazer. Tons of options here. A sweater vest. Yeah, a sweater, jacket, a safari jacket, even a trucker jacket. The options are endless. Sweaters are another great option, especially during the colder times of the year or maybe in the evening. And what’s nice about this, is they’re incredibly comfortable. Throw a jumper right over that polo, and you’ve got the neck showing, crew necks. You can go with a V-neck. Any of these look great, maybe even a cardigan.
Now, gents, if you think wearing a pop collar is ridiculous and those men should be fined, do me a favor and smash the like button. Now, we’ve talked about color and patterns, but I want to give them their point because I think a big mistake a lot of guys make when they’re going out there and they’re buying a polo is they go with something too loud, something maybe that’s too bright, has too distinctive of a pattern. And the problem with a polo shirt like that is it’s not going to be versatile. It’s not going to be interchangeable with most items in your wardrobe. That’s why I say keep it simple. Go with a solid color that you’re already wearing in your dress shirt. Because guess what? If you’ve got a lot of dress shirts that are white or light blue or dark blue, you probably have jackets that already match that. So it’s going to fit naturally into your wardrobe. Yes, it’s not going to be super exciting, but you can have fun with small accessories. You can change things up, or eventually, you can bring in a polo with a little bit of pattern. But you’ve got those base polos down which ensure you’re going to get a lot of wear ability out of that particular style of garment.
Next up, let’s talk about materials you’re going to see two of the main materials used in most lacoste polo shirts today are going to be performance fabrics like polyester. You’re also going to see cotton. And cotton still reigns supreme. For a lot of higher-end brands, this is only what they sell and this is where they started. If you go back, there were two main types of cotton or at least weaves that we saw. We saw Peak Cotton and we saw Jersey. Now, Jersey is going to have a very luxurious, a bit of a stretchy fabric. It’s the way it’s woven. And this is nice. It’s smooth, and it’s clear. One of the issues, though, with Jersey is if you sweat, it’s very easy to spot. Hence, Peak is going to have more of a three-dimensional weave. It was going to be breathable. The peak was popular with people that were using these shirts for, let’s say on the rugby field. If you’re using them on the tennis field, this was the type of shirt that was going to be made from this material. It had a little bit of stretch to it, but it was about being able to soak up moisture, not be able to see that moisture, and for it eventually, evaporate. And when it comes to dressing up or dressing down a polo, usually Jersey was going to be of the dressier type. So we saw if you’re going to wear something with a sports jacket, it would be a Jersey fabric versus a Peak fabric, which was again a polo that was made to be more functional. Is that being said, what about performance fabrics? So 30, 40 years ago, they had a nasty rap. And I think that’s where a lot of people’s minds, unfortunately, have stayed. I would say in the last 20 years, we have seen huge jumps and we have to thank the golf industry because so many guys in the golf industry demanded that, hey, they use a performance material. They wanted to be able to drive the price down at the same time, have something that’s moisture-wicking, something that’s got a bit of a stretch, something that performs even better than cotton. And that’s what I found with a lot of performance materials, is that they just are more comfortable. They’re better at absorbing moisture and getting it off. And if you want to check them out, give them a second look.
I had already switched pretty much all of my polos over to performance materials, because it came down to little things like even stains. I find that performance materials, especially in darker colors, do a great job of just not holding stains. When a lot of cottons, especially my jerseys, were expensive polos, they kept just keeping the stain. I couldn’t seem to get rid of it. And that is another mistake I want to talk about. Once your polo wears out, once it has stains that cannot be removed if it gets tears if it’s ripped, if it’s looking worn, you need to replace it. Yes, it’s more expensive than a T-shirt, but this is something that you don’t want to wear anything that looks ragged. Once it has seen better days, it’s time to go ahead and either donate it, turn it into a rag, or yeah, just simply get a new one. Now, what about the range of the polo? Basically, how far can you dress this down? How far can you dress it up? Well, the most casual polo-style shirt we’re going to see out there is going to be the Henley. And this one does not have a collar. Technically, it is not a polo, but it’s still in the same family, so that’s why I’m mentioning it. But polos are nice because, again, you go with the peak, you go with cotton. This can be a very casual outfit. You can wear it on the tennis court. You can wear it out on the rugby field. If you’re out there playing polo, you’re going to see these types of shirts. That being said, you can, to a degree, wear them even with a casual suit. So a suit, the same jacket, trousers made from the same material color. And you’re wearing this white polo that looks nice, made from either a jersey or a performance material that has a very strong color. And that’s going to be key if it looks like it is placed there. Again, if it’s incredibly hot, it’s going to be out an outdoor wedding and they still want you to dress well. I would say you could get away with wearing a polo, or if a necktie is not required, then definitely you can get away with wearing it, especially wearing it with a sports jacket or a blazer. Again, the lines are a bit gray here. You’ve got to know what the dress code is.
Now, let’s address the age-old question. Do you tuck in a polo shirt? The majority of people are going to think, well, no, it’s made to be worn untucked. And if you look at the hem, you look at basically the bottom of the shirt, you can tell the design. So if it goes straight across, this one is meant to be worn untucked. These are going to be oftentimes cut shorter. So even if you wear them, they’re only going to have maybe an inch to two inches past the waistline. You’re also going to see other ones that have a little bit of a vent on the side. And these right here, again, are made to be worn untucked. That being said, some polo shirts are a bit longer. Those are oftentimes made from jerseys. If it goes three to four inches past the waistline, another telltale sign is if the back is longer than the front, this is known as the tennis tail. Now, this shirt, again, depends on the length, if it’s only a couple of inches past the waist point on the trousers or the shorts that you’re wearing, you can wear it untucked. But the reason for that long back is actually to wear the polo shirt tucked in so that it doesn’t come untucked whenever you’re out there on the tennis court or throughout the day. And I do think if you’re wearing it with a sports jacket if you’re wearing it with a suit, and that case, you probably should tuck it in.