Not buildable in Clothix yet. There's no polo pattern in the tool — it's on the roadmap. This page is the construction knowledge, which applies whatever you spec it in.
Pique, and why it isn't just texture
A pique polo takes its name from its fabric. Pique is a double knit with a deliberately raised surface — the small waffle grid you can see on any polo. The texture is a side effect of what it's really for: pique is stable. It doesn't curl at a cut edge, it holds a shape, and it gives a collar something rigid enough to stand.
A polo in single jersey is a physically possible garment and a bad one: the placket ripples, the collar folds over on itself, and the whole thing reads as a t-shirt with buttons. Interlock is the smooth-surface alternative that behaves the same way structurally — use it when you want a polo that reads plain rather than textured.
Working range is 200 to 260 g/m². Below 200 the collar won't stand; above 260 the placket corners get thick.
The placket
A finished opening at the centre front, with buttons. Three ways to build it:
- Applied placket — a separate strip sewn on. Most visible topstitching, most robust, easiest to get consistent. The usual industrial choice.
- Self-placket — the front panel is cut with an extension and folded back. Cleaner from the outside, harder to keep even, and it needs the fabric to hold a crease.
- Half-placket with a separate under-facing — a middle route, common on cheaper polos and where the bottom of the placket is often reinforced with a bar tack rather than a proper box.
Spec the placket length, width, button count, button spacing, buttonhole orientation (vertical or horizontal — they behave differently under strain) and what happens at the bottom of the opening. That last one is where placket samples fail: an unreinforced placket bottom tears.
The collar
Two components that get conflated. The collar is usually a piece of flat-knitted rib, often made on a separate machine with its own finished edges — which is why polo collars have that distinct tipped or striped edge. The collar band is the strip that joins the collar to the neckline.
Three mountings: collar attached directly to the neckline with a taped seam, collar mounted on a separate band, or a band-and-facing construction closer to a woven shirt. Each gives a different stand height and a different price.
Spec collar length, collar height, collar composition and weight, tipping if any, and the mounting method. Then the neckline stretch ratio, same principle as any rib: the collar band is attached with tension, and how much is a number. Recovery matters here more than anywhere, because a polo collar that's lost its recovery is the most visible failure in knitwear.
The rest
Sleeve openings are usually rib cuffs, at a ratio of around 80 to 90 % of the opening — looser than a sweatshirt cuff, because a polo cuff sits on a bicep rather than gripping a wrist. Side vents at the hem are common and need their own finish callout. And a back neck tape, always, because the collar's weight pulls on the shoulder line.
Points of measure
Sixteen to nineteen. Over a t-shirt, a polo adds: placket length, placket width, collar height, collar length, cuff width and height, and vent height if there are vents. Where the tape goes.
Interlock and pique · collars and cuffs · buttons as a trim · the garment catalogue