The Stylish Fred Perry Label

The company that is one of the oldest in the fashion business and definitely one of the oldest British companies is also one of the coolest today and most dear to the youngest and most fashionable people in Britain. The Fred Perry label is more than half a century old this year and hence more than twice the age of most of the people who today sport the label on their shirts and tees.

The label was actually started by the ace tennis player who any true tennis fan will remember as a three time British Wimbledon Cup Champion, Fred Perry. Not many though will know that the company actually came about when Fred was approached by an Australian with an odd request. It was the late nineteen forties when Australian footballer Tibby Wegner who was actually a close friend of the British tennis player and Wimbledon champion, approached him with a request for a sweatband to keep the sweat and his hair out of his eyes when playing football. Perry took up Tibby Wegner's request and the sweat band turned out to be their first product together. As luck would have it, the sweat band was an instant hit as it seemed to be just the product that professional athletes were looking for. Within a year most tennis players on the professional circuit were wearing sweat bands.

The product that would make the label that Tibby Wegner and Perry started and that Perry gave his name to though would not come till a few years later in nineteen fifty two when the first Fred Perry polo shirt with the distinctive laurel wreath logo that is now famous the world over was first launched. The shirt was a fitted pique polo that was made available for sale to the public with this logo and the Perry's name on it and it was an instant runaway hit.

The polo shirt was not only a hit, it was also widely adopted as well as adapted by many subcultures in Britain over the years as generation after generation found that the simple fitted polo shirt with the laurel wreath logo on it was one of the most stylish pieces of clothing that they could be seen in that was also understated in a typically British fashion. For this reason the shirt has been the uniform for a number of British popular movements gravitated towards Fred Perry's polos. Today the brand is more popular than ever as a new generation falls in love with its products.