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Mod to Suedehead

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Lacoste launched their new range of sports shirts under the name of polo shirts in '72, so became more used after that.
Also came across this which agrees with what I found the other day.


Still not conclusive though as I think this is from an American perspective.

I've asked a few 'old people' as well, but its too easy to be tricked by the last 30 years of what's been normal.
 

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Settle down - it was Gramps that said "top" in reference to a shirt.
I was commentling on how the use of the word top to describe any upper garment was a more modern (post 70s) expression.
 

London Rudeboy

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Settle down - it was Gramps that said "top" in reference to a shirt.
I was commentling on how the use of the word top to describe any upper garment was a more modern (post 70s) expression.


Oh ,okay, sorry, didn't mean to sound defensive if I did
shog[1].gif
 

London Rudeboy

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Just another bit of intelligence about the birth of the name polo shirt when applied to a tennis type of shirt. In his witty and erudite guide from 1987 'A Gentleman's Wardrobe' Paul Keers uses the term polo shirt freely in this context and carries a picture of JFK sporting one.

Diana de Marly in 'Fashion for Men - An Illustrated History' of 1985 on the other hand calls this type of shirt simply 'a knitted shirt'.

This seems to confirm that it was during the 1980s and not 90s that this term began to be genreally accepted in England. I say generally as I believe in clothing circles it pre-dated this.

Interestingly Keers calls a roll neck/Polar/polo sweater a 'turtle neck'. My understanding has always been that the correct term for this type of sweater (or its lighterweight cousin as made by Sunspel until recently) is turtle, with the shorter type of collar that does not roll being a mock turtle. John Smedley - http://www.johnsmedley.com/uk/mens/mens-pullovers/ss12-oxford


But isn't that all very much to do with the way it was in the US rather than the UK.
 

Brideshead

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But isn't that all very much to do with the way it was in the US rather than the UK. 


Well I'm not quite sure what you mean. Paul Keers's book is English through and through:
http://forums.filmnoirbuff.com/viewtopic.php?id=551

I beleive Diana de Marly is also British but will need to check.

In any event 'polo' has been used to describe such shirts in England from my own memory since the late 70s. Paul Keers's book confirms it was in common usage by the mid 80s.
 

Ed Vaughan

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Forgive me in advance for off topic question but maybe you can help me with this jacket type. I searched internet all over and cant find answer. Biff Tannen wears this jacket in Back to the Future. What kind of jacket is this? Thank you.



I stand to be corrected... but it looks very much like a 'surfer jacket' I had in 1968 - different colour, though.
 
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Gramps

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Settle down - it was Gramps that said "top" in reference to a shirt.
I was commentling on how the use of the word top to describe any upper garment was a more modern (post 70s) expression.


What did I miss????
 

browniecj

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Great photos! It's a shame nobody under the age of 30 dresses like that here anymore. The dominant youth fashion where I'm from (western australia) is awful pastel singlets, tiny checked shorts, canvas slip-ons, massive sneakers, techno-looking wraparound sunglasses/monstrosities. Funny though, apparently Perth had a pretty big influx of British ex-pats around the late '60s/'70s so there is quite a large group of older folks who'd have been young teenagers when skinhead took off in Britain that have retained elements of style, as well as younger (50 y.o odd) guys that make up quite a sizeable Northern soul community here.


Top, toppy, top top. :D


Now,now Boys:D
 

Dr Huh?

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I stand to be corrected... but it looks very much like a 'surfer jacket' I had in 1968 - different colour, though.


Isn't it just a baseball/varsity jacket?

 

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