Pitch Perfect
On or off the field, there’s good reason the Polo rugby shirt remains forever coolPitch Perfect
The rugby shirt needs no introduction. As fashionable men from David Hockney to André 3000 have known, the rugby offers ruggedness and style in equal measure, owing in large part to its connection to a rough-and-tumble sport that began when a ruffian named William Webb Ellis literally picked up the ball and ran with it during a football match at England’s Rugby school back in 1823.
Then, the players just wore what they had on. After a few games (and presumably a few ruined shirts), they switched to a woolen jersey, which proved too hot and itchy for muddy matches. Along came the rugby we know and love, whose specifications were codified into the game’s rules in 1871. Those specifications included details like heavyweight cotton and rubber buttons beneath a concealed placket, to keep the buttons in place and reduce the risk of injury. The cuffs should be ribbed, to help them stay in place. The contrast collar: short, to prevent horse-collar tackles. And then there are the namesake stripes, an eye-catching detail that indicated the wearer’s school club.
Naturally, Ralph Lauren, who has long cited “the age of the gentleman athlete” as an influence, took notice. Rugby shirts were part of his Polo collections from the start. Indeed, “Rugby” was considered a possible name for Polo—“We wanted something that sounded tweedy, sporty, elegant, English, expensive,” Ralph said later—and ultimately was used for both another brand and for Mr. Lauren’s best friend, a rescue dog.
Like its shirting peers, the oxford and the Polo, the rugby was inspired by England, refined by prep schoolers and Ivy Leaguers, and perfected by Ralph. It’s been a mainstay of Polo collections ever since—and no matter your collegiate loyalties, you cannot go wrong with one of Polo’s iconic blue and red or blue and yellow stripe versions.
That said, Ralph being Ralph, he has playfully bent and perhaps even broken the rules of rugby shirts over the years. Those first collections included a rakish terry cloth version, a style he has revisited many times since. In the early ’90s, rugby shirts starred in the now-iconic Snow Beach, Stadium, and CP-93 collections (and were resurrected for the recent reissues). Polo rugby shirts also featured a bevy of patches and crests, including such unique (and collectible) graphics like the P-Wing and the Polo Sport logo. Many included the Polo Pony at the wearer’s chest; a few more recent editions offer it at the wrist, a callback to its first appearance on the cuff of a women’s shirt. And in 1991, the Polo Bear made his debut on, among other items, a rugby shirt.
This commitment to authenticity and quality, along with Ralph’s signature taste for the unexpected detail, earned the Polo rugby shirt plenty of fans. They include Tom Selleck’s Magnum, P.I., who sported an assortment of them, one of which had a kangaroo pouch and shoulder pads. Mick Jagger wore his under a blazer, tucked into belted pants, in the ’80s. In recent years, Billie Eilish, Chloë Sevigny, and Chance the Rapper have favored theirs in baggier, ’90s-style fits. A Polo rugby even played a supporting role in the Emmy-winning series The Bear, where the fictional chef Carmy Berzatto, portrayed by Jeremy Allen White, dons an exclusive Polo x Palace rugby shirt for a family gathering that goes sideways.
Whatever the year, whether traditional or less-so, the rugby shirt is always in style, and forever cool.