Types - - by style, fabric, and pattern:

Band collar – A style derived from detachable collar shirts, the 1827 innovation by Hannah Lord Montague of Troy, NY. This is the shirt worn without the collar!

Bowling -- Short sleeve, loose shirt designed for the sport of bowling. Often personalized with the name of the shirt wearer on front and the team and/or sponsor name on the back. Usually not tucked into pants.

C.P.O. – U.S. Navy "Chief Petty Officer" shirt of lightweight navy wool, button front and patch pockets often worn as a jacket

Camp Shirt -- Sleeves are cut loose, may be short or long sleeve with two flap chest pockets and usually in rayon or linen.

Chambray -- A plain woven fabric that can be made from cotton, silk, or manufactured fibers, but is most commonly cotton. It incorporates a colored warp (often blue) and white filling yarns. The name comes from the French city of Cambrai.

Cowboy or Western – closed with snaps, V-shaped or curved yoke in front and back, "smile" pockets, contrast stitching and fabrics.

Denim -- A sturdy twill cotton fabric, great for casual shirts in Western or other styles. Probably best not worn with matching denim jeans.

Fiesta or Mexican wedding shirt – white cotton trimmed with a wide band of eyelet embroidery down either side of the front. Popularized in Acapulco, Mexico in the late 1960’s. Never tucked into pants. Inspired by shirts worn by Mexican peasant grooms at weddings.

Flannel – the word is derived from the Welsh "gwalnen" meaning woolen cloth, it’s a slightly heavier, soft, luxurious weave which is napped (brushed) on both sides. With an added lining the flannel shirt can be worn as a jacket.

Gingham – The East Indians were first to weave this cool, fine cloth. The Malayans named it "gingang" for "striped". It’s a yarn-dyed cotton fabric woven in stripes, checks, plaids, or solid colors, and also a19^th colloquial term for an umbrella because less expensive umbrellas were made from gingham fabric.

Guayabera – lightweight, short sleeve, four large patch pockets, and two sets of pin tucks in front, running from small shoulder yokes to hem, and three sets of pin tucks in the back form yoke to hem or embroidered stripes down the front instead of tucks. Never tucked into pants. From the style worn in Cuba by guava tree growers.

Hawaiian or Aloha-- Boldy patterned, bright colored, loose fitting shirts introduced in the 1920’s in the Hawaiian Islands. Island shirts trace their origins back to the "tapa" fabric made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree and the staple fabric for the Polynesians. And also the "pareu, a lighter printed cotton cloth worn by Tahitians

History of Sport Shirts 

The earliest shirts were made of silk and cotton, readily available, kimono fabrics.

In 1924 Du Pont introduced rayon, a man made wood pulp fiber, which became the fashionable fabric for Hawaiian shirts. The Du Pont mill burned to the ground in the mid 1950’s. So vintage shirts (from 1935 to 1959) made with these fabrics are highly valued.

The 1930s popularity of steamship travel to Hawaii boomed. Demand for shirts increased. The growing tourist trade to Hawaii in the 1930’s helped introduce the shirts to mainland America as did the returning military who had served in the islands. In 1936, Honolulu businessman Ellery Chun coined the term "aloha shirt". The Hawaii Chamber of Commerce resolved in 1947 that businessmen could wear it to work from june through October. Hollywood did its part in promoting the shirt including the 1953 Academy Award winning movie "From Here to Eternity".

Reyn Spooner reverse fabric was popular in the 1960s

Henley or Wallace Beery has a collarless ring neck that is split in front to allow two or more vertical buttons. Derived from crew racing shirts worn for the famous rowing regatta established in 1839 at Henley, England (south west of London). Wallace Berry (1889-1949) a tough, ugly but easy going, mostly comic actor often wore this type of shirt in his movies.

Horsehair – during the Middle Ages the religion of the day dictated that humility is good and man has a need to be punished. A horsehair shirt under your robe provided plenty of pain for penance. Thomas a Becket wore one to atone for his carousing days with Henry II.

Madras -- Loosely woven, fine cotton fabric from Madras, India, vegetable dyed in plaids, stripes and checks. Tends to fade when washed. The cloth is lightweight, airy, printed fabric , loosely woven of short-staple, highly durable cotton. In this region of India the summertime highs routinely hit the low hundreds.

The plaids were an expression of India’s fondness for Scottish tartans of regiments occupying India in the 1800’s. The Indians reinterpreted the plaid according to the local color palette. Ellerton Jette, president of Hathaway shirts found the shirts on a trip to England and introduced the madras plaids in American in the 1930’s. Consumers started retuning the shirts when they discovered that they faded. David Ogilvy, advertising icon, publicized the shirts as "guaranteed to fade". "Magical things happen to this shirt when you wash it", Ogilvy wrote, and the madras shirt and great advertising have been with us since.

Pilot -- long sleeve, button front, and patch pockets with bellows pleats, features an epaulet tab on each shoulder with button near neckline. An epaulet is a shoulder tab originally used on military uniforms from the 1860’s and useful to secure strapped equipment like rifles, binocular cases, etc.

Polo – The polo shirt (small p, unless it’s the first word in a sentence) refers to a type of shirt, and not Marco Polo nor the name of Ralph Lauren’s company, although Ralph Lauren/Polo does market his very famous polo shirt. See History.

The polo shirt is a knitted sport shirt in a pullover style with short sleeves, a rolled collar and buttons at the neck opening. They are usually made from 100% cotton, and found in a variety of knits, the most common are:

Pique (pee-kay) -- a durable, raised design (typically waffle), "Pique" is from the French verb "piquer" meaning "to pierce". Also called "mesh".

Interlock – smooth, firm texture, with good elasticity

Lisle – two-ply cotton yarn of long staple fibers, which are combed, tightly twisted giving it a very silky soft hand. "Lisle" is derived from an early spelling of Lille, France

Rugby – originally a knit shirt with broad stripes in two contrasting colors with small white rib knit collar and cuffs. The placket neckline closed with a zipper or buttons. More recently it has lost the stripes, but retained the white contrast collar and placket often with a French fly covering the buttons. While playing soccer at the Rugby School of England in 1823, William Webb Ellis picked up the ball with his hands and ran with it. This sparked an interest leading to the creation of a game called rugby and the shirt of the same name evolved.