My Style these days: Luxuriously Casual

According to someone I met at one of the events I attended I dress 'Luxuriously Casual'. I find this to be very appropriate in describing my style. No one needs to wear a jacket here but it does make a very good first impression if you do. Especially if the fit is correct. If it isn't, you are best not wearing one at all.

Button Down Shirt Collar Roll - Best with a Brooks Brothers OCBD shirt

This article is one of those articles on how to look prim and proper in hot and humid weather. Usually here in Malaysia it is too hot to wear any sort of jacket outdoors for longer than a few minutes. It is usually sans tie and jacket if one spends most of his time outdoors here. Of course, a nice unlined, unconstructed hopsack linen jacket and a very thin dress shirt could also do wonders. But let's have options for the average man here in the tropics. What would be the best shirt that would look good without a tie or a jacket? 

One of the nicest ready to wear (RTW) button down collared shirts that one can find are those made by Brooks Brothers. Button-down collars have points fastened down by buttons on the front of the shirt. These shirts were first introduced by the American clothing company Brooks Brothers in 1896 and were patterned after the shirts of polo players (who used to wear proper button down shirts instead of the polo shirts we see today). They were used exclusively on sports shirts until the 1950s in America. It is still considered a more casual shirt style because of its collar - different from the usual spread or pointed collars, which are considered as formal. Some do say that traditionalist would not wear a button down collared shirt with a suit as it is a shirt specifically for a sport (polo) and not one to wear with a suit.

The high collar or shirt collar polo shirt. Where to buy them and the one by Brioni

  

One of the things that most men wear these days is the polo shirt (or polo tee as most of us here in Malaysia call them). The polo shirt, was first used as a golf shirt and tennis shirt. It is a fairly new invention actually, sometime after the 1860s after which tennis was first invented. The polo shirt is a shirt with a collar, a placket with buttons, and sometimes comes with one chest pocket. . Polo shirts are usually made of knitted cloth rather than made from woven cloth that dress shirts are made of. It is made from woven cotton usually but you also have them in wool, silk, polyester and a combination of materials too. 

I personally like using them on weekends, on holidays and other more casual outings. One thing that always bugged me about polo shirts is the way they sit underneath a sports jacket. The collar, made out of the same material as the body of the shirt but ribbed and just folded over to create a collar, sits flatly underneath any jacket. In fact, even when wearing the polo shirt on its own, it may curl up or be very limp. Buttoning up till the top does not work. In fact, buttoning up the top most button on a polo shirt would actually make you look like Forrest Gump. Whilst the character is amazing and shows you how people can survive with what was given or not given to them, he also showed us a certain stereotype which one should never follow unless you're Forrest Gump. This here is a tip folks. Do not button up the top button on your polo shirt.