Thursday, August 31

I'd missed the development but it seems that an important icon of my wardrobe is under threat.  My treasured white polo shirts have suddenly become the garment of choice for white supremacists.  How do I know?  Because, more than you would expect of the torch-bearing marchers at Charlottesville sported pristine white shirts with neat collars and two buttons at the neck.  Apparently, someone decided that white polo shirts would give an air of respectability.  As if!

What's the world coming to?  Nobody really knows whether polo shirts grew out of British polo players in Argentina or India, but they soon became associated with sports like polo, yachting and golf, games which necessitated access to a horse, an ocean-going vessel or a dozen or more hand-tooled clubs. The polo shirts soon became an aspirational garment.  I know, when I wear one of mine I'm treated with more respect.  People don't know whether I have a yacht tied up in the Meander River so go out of their way to be deferential.

Coloured polo shirts don't have the same cachet as white ones and the bizarre invention of long-sleeved polos will soon be confined to the dustbins of history.  .Ralph Lauren seems to be the brand of choice, with the famous man on a horse logo.  David Jones is selling them this week for $139.  I have a couple of similar shirts I bought in Manila - called Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club with a similar man on a similar horse.  I think I paid about $39 for them.  

The question is: do white supremacists buy genuine Ralph Lauren, made in China by sweat shop labour, or do they buy cheap knock-offs, also made in China by sweat shop labour?  It's a tricky ethical question.