This article is about possibly the most useful current item for a man’s smart casual wardrobe: the long-sleeved polo shirt. With less formal dress codes prevailing in office environments these days, these items are one of the best ways to fit in with the more casual ethos, but also look professional and put-together. We will look at the options for these shirts and consider the various ways to incorporate them into your rotation

How to wear a long-sleeved polo

Undoubtedly, if you wear a polo shirt you are moving down the formality scale. You are going further down below casual shirts such as oxford and linen. You wouldn’t want to wear one if you are attending a formal client meeting or have an internal meeting with someone senior. Having said that, they are now a suitable replacement for shirts in a lot of situations. 

You can basically wear a long-sleeved polo shirt whenever you want to dial down the formality of an outfit or if you want a bit more comfort (traveling maybe). The obvious point to make is that you can’t wear these with a tie so it automatically rules out those occasions. The classic way these days is to wear one with odd trousers and a sports jacket. It will look more casual but if you style it right then it will still look very sartorial. It will go with the whole range of odd trousers and sports jackets. 

What to look for in a long-sleeved polo

Firstly, without wanting to state the obvious, it has to be long-sleeved. Polo shirts have been more associated with the short-sleeved versions that are used for sports (eg Lacoste for tennis). These short-sleeved versions can work but to start with we’ll find that a long-sleeved version fits more neatly into our rotation. The long-sleeve makes it more formal as it replicates the look of a shirt and when you wear it with a jacket you’ll get some of the shirt showing at the wrist. 

The most important factor to consider is the collar. Polo shirts typically have small collars which don’t work well when they are worn under a jacket as the collar collapses and doesn’t stand above the jacket collar. As much as possible we want to replicate the construction of a shirt collar. A larger collar is also more flattering as it covers more of the neck and frames the face better. 

What fabric for a long-sleeved polo shirt

The most obvious choice here is cotton but in the typical cotton piques style that we are used to in short-sleeved versions. This is quite a rough fabric compared to a typical cotton for shirting but that plays into the casualness of the look. This is quite a stiff fabric so it can work well in terms of keeping a good collar stand. The fabric can feel quite thick but it will wear cool and will be comfortable.