The Perfect Cool Weather Casual Shirt. . .

One of the current crop of rugby shirts on offer from Land's End for Fall 2018. The photo has been "borrowed" from the LE website.

When the weather turns chilly, there is nothing like a rugby shirt to dress up those more casual moments once you come home and change out of the day's creased dress pants, blazer or sports jacket, oxford cloth button down or similar, and remove the ol' necktie and (hopefully) leather dress shoes or loafers. Best if all, rugby jerseys seem tailor-made for lazy weekends. . . Assuming anyone stills allows themselves to have lazy weekends in 2018. Heck, rugby tops might even work in certain business casual environments, and certainly for those occasional Saturday mornings when when drop by the office for a few hours to catch up on the week's work.

In any case, I've worn and enjoyed casual shirts similar to the Land's End number pictured above, from roughly September each year through to the following April, for close to 40 years now. But why rugby shirts exactly?

In short, they are comfortable, warmer than a long-sleeved t-shirt, but less bulky than many sweaters. They also have an actual collar making them a bit dressier than, say, a gray sweatshirt, which makes all of us look more pulled together. What's more, they are tough and last a long time. And rugby tops just look good. Certainly better than the now ubiquitous pilled fleece.

It's also worth keeping in mind that rugby tops coordinate well with jeans, khaki chinos, tan corduroy pants, and even shorts for those cooler summer, late spring, or early fall days. In those more private moments at home with the door closed, they even manage to elevate grey sweatpants a few notches if that happens to be your go-to (albeit inescapably frumpy) choice for the lower half.

All of which is to say you needn't be embarrassed to answer the front door if someone knocks, and you actually choose to answer. Likewise, you'll look more pulled together if you step outside to get the mail, walk your dog to and from the park, or make a quick run around the corner to pick up that half-gallon of milk that you might have forgotten on the way home. It's hard to miss with rugby shirts, in other words, when it comes to cool (-er) weather casual gear.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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