Merino sport shirt in olive

Model wears size 38/S. He measures: chest circumference 36" (92cm); height 6"1 (185cm).

Please see size chart at the top of the page to determine which size is best for you. Other aspects:

• This style runs small. We recommend that you take one size up from your usual size
• Tighter round neck for a neater neckline and to distinguish it from an ordinary t-shirt
• Longer short sleeves for a more elegant look
• Longer ribbed cuffs and hems, in keeping with vintage inspirations
• Slim modern fit but has a small amount of natural stretch and moulds to body over time
• Body of sweater tapers slightly from the chest down to the hem to give a more fitted look by minimising excess fabric often found around the waist of sweaters
• Smaller armhole without being overly restrictive

Our merino sport shirt is a homage to sport tops worn by British Olympic athletes in track and field events in the 1920s, donned by the likes of legends such as Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell.

Designed to be an elevated version of your summer tee, it is fully fashioned and hand linked, allowing for a neater fit throughout the whole garment, in contrast to a standard t-shirt, which is cut and sewn.

As it is a piece with its yarn spun in Italy, but knitted and washed in the Scottish Borders, it possesses the unique quality of being light, breathable and soft (characteristic of knitwear made with Italian yarn), but has a robustness that comes with having been washed in Scottish water, with all its unique minerals that strengthen the knitwear, making it last decades. The perfect spring/summer staple to wear season after season, as part of a casual outfit, or with tailored clothing, in place of a shirt.

It is knitted in extrafine merino wool from Zegna Baruffa’s prestigious Cashwool® collection, the world’s best, and softest merino wool with a cashmere like hand feel, making it soft against the skin, as well as light and breezy when worn, hence its name Cashwool®.

In keeping with sport shirt designs from before the 1950s, our sport shirt has the following features:

• It has longer short sleeves, sitting about 2.5 - 3 inches above the elbow, covering most of the upper arm. The longer short sleeves are a deliberate design feature to give the sport shirt a sense of modest elegance, in contrast to the modern t-shirt with sleeves that stop mid-bicep, making it more informal.
• The cuffs and hem have longer ribs, keeping the top well fitted around the body, enabling ease of movement. We believe that the longer ribs also look more flattering and elegant on the wearer than shorter ribs or no ribs (like modern t-shirts and polos).
• It has a higher, tighter round neck in a double-over trim, for a smarter neck line.

These smarter aspects are inspired by sport shirts from before the 1950s, when they often were worn with tailored clothing. This makes our sport shirt a versatile piece – wear it to look more dressed up with casual clothing like jeans, but it would work just as well with a pair of light weight trousers, as a substitute to a shirt.

We are confident in bringing you the world's finest knitwear because we only use the very best at every stage of manufacture:

Quality of fibre: 100% extrafine merino wool of the highest quality, sourced from a special breed of Australian sheep that yields some of the world’s finest merino wool fibres, with a fibre diameter of c. 19.5 microns (the world's finest, hence softest, merino wool). By comparison, most ordinary lambswool averages 21 - 24 microns in fibre diameter. Fibre length is c. 58 – 60mm - the long staple length keeps the sweater in shape and avoids pilling.

Quality of yarn: the world’s best extrafine merino wool yarn produced by world renowned spinners Zegna Baruffa at their famous wool mill in Borgosesia, Northern Italy. Italian specialists in the production of fine, light weight yarns since the early 1800s, Zegna Baruffa had been known in particular for their prestigious Cashwool® collection – merino wool yarns that are regarded as the world’s softest merino, hence “Cashwool®” – the hand feel being so comparable to the softness of cashmere itself, except that it is breezier than cashmere, making it the perfect yarn for lighter weight knits.  

Quality of knit: knitted, hand-finished and washed by fourth generation heritage knitwear specialists in Hawick, the Scottish Borders, a region whose expertise in crafting knitwear is without compare. Garments are knitted tightly to minimise gaps and to ensure longevity.

Quality of finish: there is a high degree of hand-finishing. The sweater is "fully-fashioned", as signified by the faint-dotted lines along the sleeve-head of the jumper. This makes the garment more well fitted, much like a bespoke suit. Individual pieces of the sweater are “hand-linked” - a meticulous process by which each tiny knit-loop at the end of each piece of the sweater is linked together by hand, ensuring the seams are the straightest and strongest.

Quality of wash: the finished product is carefully washed in pure Scottish waters with the precise balance of minerals, so that the garment is given its famous soft handle without compromising the integrity of the fibres. Scottish knitwear may feel a little stiff to begin with but will soften naturally with age.

Find out more about the quality of our garments here.

Hand wash or dry clean only. Click here for more detail.