Of all the dress codes required to gain entrance to clubs, the most unforgiving may be the one to play golf. “At many golf clubs your skirt and shorts must be as long as your knee, and you have to have sleeves and a collar,” explains Toby Tucker, a former market editor and lifelong golfer. “All of those details can make for a pretty dorky-looking outfit.”
After years of playing by these bleak fashion rules and feeling as if there were few functional options beyond pink and green argyle, Tucker was determined to create a sophisticated collection. Tucker’s eponymous line, which debuted on Saturday at the Bridge golf club in Bridgehampton, N.Y., doesn’t have a trace of the boxy polos and ill-fitting tan shorts to which she constantly resigned herself. Instead, the line is a sophisticated, clean, lightly preppy collection that might first strike you as a perfect ensemble to wear to lunch or on an afternoon of errands, and then would surprise you when you learned that its first responsibility is to perform as comfortable, carefully engineered sportswear. The pieces are secretly technical, with almost-hidden details that cover the gamut of needs on the golf course. A dress with smart-looking mattress ticking is cut for a halter sports bra and has pockets that fit a scorecard. Cotton button-down shirts have SPF protection, a little stretch, and are long—a decision that came from Tucker seeing one too many belly buttons every time a woman swung. Shorts pockets are angled so that nothing falls out during the constant bending to pick up stray golf balls, and each has ribbon detail, providing a space to hold tees. A water-resistant anorak that comes in ten colors including grass-green, orange, and ice-blue (bright, Tucker emphasizes, but not scary bright: pretty) is long enough to keep one’s backside dry while waiting for a storm to pass. The pieces are for sale on tobytuckergolf.com and will be arriving in golf clubs within the next few months.
