The classic color of Lacoste’s first polo shirt was white.
René Lacoste developed the shirt from the clothing he wore for tennis, a sport whose traditional dress was predominantly white. He wanted a lighter, more practical alternative to the long-sleeved, heavily starched shirts common on courts in the 1920s. The resulting design used short sleeves, a flexible collar and breathable cotton petit piqué fabric.
The shirt entered production in 1933 through Lacoste’s partnership with André Gillier. Its model name, L.12.12, refers to Lacoste, the selected fabric, the short-sleeved design and the twelfth prototype. Early versions were associated especially strongly with white, while broader color ranges arrived later.
Blue, red and black are now familiar Lacoste colors, which can make the original shade easy to overlook. They belong to the brand’s later expansion rather than the first classic polo. The white shirt also reflected tennis etiquette and helped establish the clean, understated look that became Lacoste’s signature.