Last week, I spent some time with our leadership team in Las Vegas. The trip had nothing to do with the Superbowl, Adele, or slot machines but was a combination of business meetings during the day and group dinners in the evening, so I had packed for casual and business casual moments. During the trip, with the weather being rather chilly, my colleagues and I were more often than not reaching for our Shirt Jackets rather than for a sportcoat in the after-hours moments at dinner. Trust me, I do not believe the sportscoat is dead; on the contrary, how can we do without a perfectly tailored sportscoat to dress up any social moment? But in some of the more upscale restaurants, I noticed more men like us opting for a Shirt Jacket than I had seen before.
Up until recently, I considered the Shirt Jacket a purely casual piece deriving from workwear and generally a classic of outdoor brands, but seeing versions show up in runways from Zegna, Dior, and Brunello Cuccinelli, the modern Shirt Jacket today owes more to tailoring techniques and suiting fabrics than to work gear and utility. What has remained across the Shirt Jacket evolution is the practical layering characteristic it adds over knits or shirts, but unlike its rugged outerwear cousin, the new Shirt Jacket doesn’t need to be removed at the table and sits perfectly well amongst most dress codes, at home alongside any tailored piece.
