The Extra Fine Merino Sport Shirt
Our sport shirts are made using Zegna Baruffa’s extrafine merino, renowned for its temperature regulating properties. This means our sport shirt naturally cools during warmer months when worn on its own, but warms up the body during transitional or colder months, and so works just as well as an underlayer. As it is made using the world’s finest merino yarn by Italian heavyweights Zegna Baruffa, it also feels great worn against the skin.
Further, our sport shirts are designed as a smart version of an ordinary t-shirt. This is achieved because it is fully-fashioned, rather than cut and sewn – the former a far more time-consuming technique used only in the highest grade of knitwear making. This means that each panel of the sport shirt is first knitted into the exact shape, and then the seams are linked by hand so that the seams follow the contours of the body, rather than falling off at right angles.
The sport shirt also looks smarter because of its higher round neck, longer short sleeves, and longer ribbed cuffs and hem. These vintage elements help to elevate the sport shirt further, making it ideal for wearing with smarter clothes such as tailoring.
We’ve put together some colour mixing and layering ideas for our sport shirts below, hope you enjoy!
Outfit 1.
Extra Fine Merino Sport Shirt in Brown
Brown leather jacket
White jeans
Brown loafers
Given that the sport shirt is in a very dark brown, it makes it easy to match with other shades of brown in your wardrobe, such as this mid-brown leather jacket. The two brown shades are sufficiently far apart so as not to clash but still complement each other tonally.
We find that white jeans match with the dark brown shade of the sport shirt very well – casual enough, but still smart.
Outfit 2.
Extra Fine Merino Sport Shirt in Brown
Beige trench coat
Olive pleated trousers
Brown loafers
As the brown sport shirt is a smarter version of a t-shirt, it works with tailoring such as this pair of pleated olive trousers. The high waisted nature of the trousers and pleats have a vintage feel to them, which further complement the vintage elements of the sport shirt.
To layer over the top, we've gone with a beige trench coat. We like the combination of brown, olive and beige – all earthy colours that complement each other well.
We like that the trench coat is slightly slouchy, which contrasts well against the slimmer, closer fit of the sport shirt. We finished the look with a beige/brown bandana, in keeping with the beige colour of the trench coat and brown sport shirt.
Outfit 3.
Extra Fine Merino Sport Shirt in Navy
Black leather jacket
Black and white bandana
White jeans
Navy and white go well together, hence the choice of white jeans:
When the weather turns, throw on a black leather biker over the navy sport shirt for an effortless smart casual look. We find navy and black work well together, especially if the black leather is vintage and slightly creased, contrasting the crisper, smoother texture of the merino knit. Given the darker top, we have counteracted this with white jeans to balance the look.
The black and white bandana is used to complement the colour palette of the whole look. We like that the higher neck line of the sport shirt means that the bandana looks more “dressed up” and neat when wrapped round the neck and tucked in, like we have done here. As opposed to an ordinary casual t-shirt, we feel using the bandana over the smarter sport shirt takes the look away from more “western” connotations.
Outfit 4.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in navy
Medium wash denim shirt and jeans
Navy linen sport coat
Navy and gold bandana
Another great combination with our navy is light jeans:
The navy sport shirt functions as an underlayer here, providing some warmth on chillier days and some interest underneath the double denim combination. We have chosen a medium wash denim to go with the dark navy sport shirt for contrast, and finished with a navy sport coat to go with the blue tones of the outfit.
The linen on the navy sport coat has a slight slubbiness that works well with the texture of the denim and the merino sport shirt. Blue/gold bandana as finishing touch to elevate the outfit, and tie in with colour palette.
Outfit 5.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in olive
Dark raw denim jacket
White jeans
Black loafers
Our olive sport shirt is made in a matt, slightly darker olive colour which makes it ideal when paired with other casual items of clothing such as a denim jacket.
The olive also works particularly well with dark navies, hence our pairing here. The white jeans are a versatile addition and match well with the olive and denim jacket. We’ve stuck with denim for the jeans to match with the denim jacket so that they work together texturally.
Here is the sport shirt with the white jeans:
We’ve then chosen black loafers for the look to inject some formality to what would otherwise be a casual outfit. This outfit shows how our sport shirt works incredibly well with other casual elements in your wardrobe.
Outfit 6.
Extra Fine Merino Sport Shirt in Olive
Navy pleated trousers
Cream linen sport coat
The olive sport shirt can go with navy trousers:
For this outfit, we’ve swapped the top and bottom round to make the bottoms navy and the top cream. Navy and cream we find always work well with olive. We’ve chosen a pair of high waisted pleated navy trousers with faint stripes to match with the olive sport shirt – as you can see, they work well together given the “smartness” of our knitted sport shirt. It wouldn’t have worked as well had the top been an ordinary t shirt. We completed the look with a cream linen jacket – the texture and colour both work well with our olive merino sport shirt.
This is an example of how our sport shirt can be dressed up as part of a more formal outfit, but without it looking too stuffy. In this way, the sport shirt can be a nice substitute to a shirt and tie for those birthday parties and informal gatherings, where you are expected to dress up, but not in full business attire!
Outfit 7.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in olive
Dark denim jeans
Navy blazer
Superfine lambswool cricket sweater
Staying with the olive/navy combination for the top and trousers, but a more casual version, so a pair of dark denim, instead of trousers. We then layered over the top with a navy blazer, to further show how the sport shirt can be dressed up with smarter clothing:
Outfit 8.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in cream mélange
Blue striped shirt
Pistachio sport coat
White jeans
Again the sport shirt here works as an underlayer, and we have put this underneath a preppy striped blue OCBD. The cream melange works well with other pastel colours, such as the light blue and white of the shirt, and the pistachio colour of the sport coat. To keep to a light palette, we finished the look with white jeans.
Outfit 9.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in cream mélange
Olive shorts
Brown check linen trousers
Cashmere crew neck in dark brown
Brown loafers
We mixed things up slightly with this outfit, opting for olive coloured shorts to go with the cream mélange. The brown check linen sport coat complements the cream well, and works with the olive as they are both earthy colours. We also have our new cashmere crew in dark brown slung round the shoulders, in case the temperature drops further!
The dark brown of the cashmere crew creates contrast against the lighter brown of the sport coat so that the two browns complement each other rather than clash. As they are both brown, they work together with the cream to create a harmonious tonal palette.
Outfit 10.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in cream mélange
Chambray shirt
Superfine lambswool tennis cardigan in navy
Beige chinos
This is how we would mix up the slightly tired "chino + shirt" office casual combo.
First, we've got our cream sport shirt (instead of a white t-shirt) underneath a chambray shirt, which we believe elevates the outfit. The sport shirt is clearly a "going out" piece, thus avoiding the connotations of having your undershirt showing with a plain white tee. We then layered on top of that our superfine lambswool cardigan in navy, to go with the lighter blue of the chambray.
The slubbiness of the chambray goes well with the woolly nature of the navy cardigan. The beige chinos add a vintage touch to the whole outfit, and we opted for these trousers over a pair of flat front, plain, slim, low waisted chinos to make the outfit more interesting.
Outfit 11.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in camel
Beige linen shirt
White jeans
The camel colour of this sport shirt works with a wide array of colours, including other beige and white colours – such as the jeans and linen shirt shown here.
Here, we’ve gone for a more contemporary, relaxed look by matching the camel sport shirt with a pair of slim white jeans and a flowy unbuttoned beige linen shirt.
The sport shirt functions again as an underlayer, but as it is much smarter than a t-shirt or undershirt, there is no need to button up the shirt to hide it.
Outfit 11.
Extra fine merino sport shirt in camel
Double denim
Cream linen sport coat
Brown loafers
Beige brown bandana
Another example of our camel sport shirt being used as a underlayer. The camel colour of our sport shirt also works well with medium wash denim as shown here. The denim adds a casual element to the outfit, and works as a midlayer, breaking up the sport shirt with the cream linen sport coat.
The light medium wash denim works with both the camel of the sport shirt and the beige of the linen sport coat (as opposed to a darker denim which wouldn’t pair as well). Beige brown bandana again to elevate the outfit and add interest – colours to complement the camel of the sport shirt and cream linen.