Stay Casual With Men’s Rugby Shirts

photo: made-in-china.com

One of the things I advise here at Be Stylish is to keep your sporting clothes for sporting activities. Things like shirts, vests and leather shoes will look way better on you then if you wore your gym equipment on a night out.

But what if you want to show your passion for sports and remain stylish at the same time? Is there a way to do it in a subtle way?

Enter the world of rugby shirts.

A rugby shirt is similar to a polo shirt, which makes it a great alternative to them. It comes with either long or short sleeves and always has thick horizontal stripes (also known as hoops). The difference lies in the fact that the rugby shirt’s collar is more prominent, pointed and can sometimes come in a different color that the rest of the shirt.

What are they made of?

Rugby shirts specifically made for the game of rugby are mostly polyester. The reason is they fit tighter on the body and are more aerodynamic.

However! …

For going out, you shouldn’t go for the polyester ones. Cotton breathes and it’s the number one choice for a variety of items of clothing. Yes, this includes rugby shirts. Sure, if you like to play rugby, you probably already have a few polyester rugby shirts but, for going out, you need the cotton ones.

Another difference between the “sportswear” rugby shirts and the “street wear” ones is that the formers have a big number on the back. You won’t always find numbers on rugby shirts that are meant to be worn on a night out.

To me, the presence of the number on the back dresses the outfit down, and I don’t personally want that. I prefer to dress my casual outfits up, to stand out a little more.

But this is up to you. Style is about following some guidelines as well as making personal decisions.

Are rugby shirts for me?

Let me put it right from the start: if you’re too short, rugby shirts are NOT for you. They have big horizontal lines that make you look wider. If you’re not that tall, your goal should be to look taller. Vertical stripes are for you in this case (think dress shirts).

If you have a belly, rugby shirts are not for you either. They’ll make your belly stand out so much you’ll want to run away home and change. 🙂

But… if you’re skinny and either tall or of average height, you should definitely go for rugby shirts. They’ll balance you out by widening your midsection.

Layering

The natural question every guy wants to know the answer to is: what goes well with a rugby shirt?

Well, a lot of things!

You can wear a t-shirt or even another collared shirt under it. Think about it: if you were tower the rugby shirt in the picture at the beginning of this article, what would happen if you wore a white shirt underneath? You would get two white collars one on top of the other.

That’s coolness at its best right there…

Here are some other things you can wear with rugby shirts: slim ties, sports jackets and even some sleeveless vests (stay away from vests with vertical stripes – since the rugby shirt has horizontal stripes, you’ll create a weird effect).

Stay stylish!