I stopped wearing polo shirts for a while, and when I was ready to get back into them, I wanted to wear the best ones out there. I was told that the Sunspel Riviera Polos were in a league of their own — the best for sure. I bought a long sleeve variant, and then I bought another, and a few more including short sleeved models as well.
Yes, I agree, these are the best polo shirts you can buy.
Materials
The materials on this are nice, but not overly special in and of themselves. It’s a 100% Supima Cotton that is ‘fully traceable and sustainable from a single farm in California’. It’s an extra-long staple cotton as well, it has a fantastic hand feel. It’s very nice, and all that, but that’s not the secret with the fabric.
The Sunspel secret is the mesh fabric they make that cotton into which they dub as the ‘Riviera’ line — likely because the Riviera is the place to be, if you’re wearing these.
When you hold this weave up to light, you can see how it’s mesh and light shines through. When you put it on, you cannot see through the fabric. This creates a cotton mesh that is fantastically breathable. All the comfort and coziness of cotton, with a much higher level of breathability. They’ve been making these since the 1950s, but Daniel Craig’s James Bond brought them back to popularity.
Because of this mesh technique, the shirt dries very quickly (more surface area on the cotton) and that means you get a lot more performance out of the shirt over a standard cotton polo. This is a top notch fabric, and sewn up quite well.
Wearing
I was taken aback at how well these shirts perform. Even in the dead-summer humid heat of Houston, these shirts wore very comfortably. At times I tossed a jacket over them to up the warmth, finding a little too much chill in the shirt.
At the same time, unlike a polyester golf-bro shirt, you look great even if you are lounging in these shirts, but like a golf-bro Polo, they are exceedingly comfortable. They are soft, but with enough structure to have a lovely drape to the fabric. They come in a wide variety of colors, I have pink, navy, and coffee — each of which is fantastic.
And yet these shirts still perform. I wore them unpacking in the summer heat, working up a sweat, and feeling the shirt drying quickly and thus cooling my body as I went. They hold up well to moving box corners, tape, but also washing and drying don’t seem to phase them much at all. (You get a normal amount of slow fade on the colors as is normal with cotton.)
And then there’s the looks. They look very sharp. One pocket, a structured-enough collar (they have a collab model with more structure to the collar). They are cut slim, and the body is just long enough on me to tuck it in, or short enough to leave it untucked depending on the style I want at the moment.
But the secret weapon is the long sleeve variant. It offers a barrel cuff with a single button closure. Like a dress shirt, which means it works under something like a Ghost Blazer, creating an easy wearing date night outfit time and time over.
In fact, because of this, I now always travel with a long sleeve Riviera in my bag. There’s almost no downside to this as it will work for being more active, for lounging around a room, or a smart casual night out. Pair this with a Ghost Blazer, and you will find yourself hard pressed to go wrong. Toss in some white 501s and some loafers to round it all out. Perfection.
One last trick, I mentioned how quickly they dry. Becuase they manage moisture so well, you can often get two wears out of the shirt without it picking up odors (assuming you can air it out for a spell before wearing again). Add some more points for traveling with these. But this also means you won’t be stinking at the end of the day (something most cotton Pique Polos can struggle with) so your good looks won’t be betrayed by any odors. Like I said, a great date night shirt.
Overall
This is my perfect polo shirt. Need I say more?
Buy here: Long Sleeve, Short Sleeve.