I wear sportcoats to class on a regular basis, both with and without a tie. Just coordinate the shirt pattern to the coat pattern properly, make sure they complement eachother. Given the time of year, I generally wear a sweater over my shirt, as well as jeans on the bottom or chinos.

You can wear both dress shirts and sportshirts tie-less with a sportshirt and it will look equally correct.

As for mock necks...either wear a turtleneck or not. Mock Necks are lame.

 

I have found that I have been wearing a tweed jacket, shirt or shirt and sweater, and jeans fairly often lately. I like the look and receive a lot of compliments on it. Try some combinations out

 

Either sport or dress shirts can work fine without a tie under a sportcoat. You should note that many of the dress shirts you have been wearing with a tie for many years - especially the ginghams and tatersalls - are fundamentally derived from the sporting cloths of the pre-war era... a time when men wore ties to play golf and shoot and row a boat around a pond. Wear those without hesitation!

Because dedicated sport shirts often have a stronger pattern and color, you have to be a little more thoughtful in matching them to a sport coat to avoid mismatches. That aside, there's nothing at all wrong with wearing a sportshirt under a jacket.

 

As one who regularly wears my three season sport coats without a tie and as my outer garment (rather than wearing an overcoat), my recommendation to the OP is go for it. You will look just fine. One propensity of mine that I have noticed when wearing a sportcoat without a tie, is that I am much more prone to leave the coat unbuttoned as I stand or am walking about, whereas when wearing a tie, the sport coat gets buttoned, almost every time I stand or walk about. :icon_scratch:

 

Make sure the collars of your shirt are strong enough to handle tielessness under the sports coat, e.g. a medium spread with sufficiently long points or a button down shirt. Many straight point collar shirts will look very sloppy without a tie holding the collar closed under the jacket.

 

Make sure the collars of your shirt are strong enough to handle tielessness under the sports coat, e.g. a medium spread with sufficiently long points or a button down shirt. Many straight point collar shirts will look very sloppy without a tie holding the collar closed under the jacket.

+1 avoid "disco spill" and you're fine. In cooler months I wear sportcoats all the time with khakis, flannels, jeans, etc. Usually with sweaters. As brother Will points out, all the pockets come in handy

 

All good advice, but not all sports coats look good with jeans/chinos. I find a cotton SC goes well with a nice pair of jeans and blue is always a good choice. Some times I'll break out the lowtop Chuck Taylors. and hit the shops!

 

I have never worn my sports jackets without a tie. I also have never worn them with anything other than gabardine slacks. I have recently come into a number of new sports jackets that I would like to wear more often. When I was a practicing Realtor I would wear sports jackets or blazers to work every day with a shirt and tie, and then I would switch to casual clothes when I get home. Now that I am a full time grad student I am not sure what to do with my clothes. I would like to wear them, but I would be the only student wearing a tie to class. What I have is a tweed jacket, a glen plaid jacket, a blue blazer that I would like to wear casually. I have a number of BB luxury sports shirts that I could wear, but they are all plaids. I also have all of my dress shirts, which as I look at my closet are mostly variations of blues- solids, stripes, tattersall, and gingham. I guess I have never worn them without a tie. If I want to wear the jackets in a more casual way would it be right to wear them with the sports shirts, or the dress shirts without a tie? I also wonder if I could wear them with my chinos, which are all BB Elliot fit mostly in shades of Khaki. I really would like to wear some of my jackets around town, or to class. I never wear shirts without collars, but I have seen the black mock neck with camel jackets and blue blazers look nice, but I feel like I couldn't do that. What is the verdict how should I wear them?

-DPC3

Yes, to everything you just asked.

​

 

I may just be a total loser when it comes to mixing patterns, but I find myself sticking to one solid and one pattern when I'm wearing a sport coat or blazer in a casual setting.

All good advice, but not all sports coats look good with jeans/chinos. I find a cotton SC goes well with a nice pair of jeans and blue is always a good choice.

+1 for the cotton sport coat! I have a black one and 2 tan shades, and they go well with almost any color/pattern shirt.

 

I often wear a sport jacket without a necktie but I never wear one without a pocket square!

 

I often wear a sport jacket without a necktie but I never wear one without a pocket square!

I am sorry, but I find this inconsistent and incongruous. A pocket square is surely several stages further in the direction of formality than is a tie. A jacket does not "dress-up" an open-necked shirt.

 

I am sorry, but I find this inconsistent and incongruous. A pocket square is surely several stages further in the direction of formality than is a tie. A jacket does not "dress-up" an open-necked shirt.

That's not how clothes work. A pocket square is no "stages... in the direction of formality" in either direction. Adding a pocket square does not make an outfit more formal, nor does it make it less formal. And it's not as though dressing involves a single continuum of dressiness on which you're only allowed to occupy a single space.

 

A pocket square is surely several stages further in the direction of formality than is a tie.

I, for one, am not sure of that at all. (In fact I would beg to differ.)

A pocket square, if worn well, is a subtle touch which of itself often evades many observers conscious perception yet adds an aura of style that they clearly do perceive (while not quite being able to identity exactly why.)

Just tonight I attended a casual gathering wearing a sport jacket over an open collar shirt, and of course wore a pocket square.
A longtime friend remarked about how well dressed I always seem to be, mentioning (twice in the evening) that I looked like a Hollywood leading man from the '50s. (I take that as a compliment, as leading men still dressed quite well in that era.)
The second time he made the comment, he mentioned how well the shirt went with the jacket (small checks with larger, subtle plaid on the jacket, by the way.) I could see that he was trying to clarify for himself exactly what caused his perception. Yes, the jacket was a nice jacket, and well fitted, but I believe the tiny highlight of contrast provided by the pocket square (just peeking out, and partially hidden by the jacket lapel) was likely a large part of what imbued the attire with the style he sensed.
...And nobody in the entire evening said anything about seeming overdressed, or "What's that thing in your pocket?"

I wholeheartedly agree with the Administrator in Chief on this matter. (as I do with the matter of stuffing eyeglasses into a breast pocket!)

 

I see the poster's point, but I've actually seen a couple examples where a fellow looked rather snazzy with a sports jacket, open collar, no tie, and pocket square.

... now I just need to learn how to do it myself.

 

I am sorry, but I find this inconsistent and incongruous. A pocket square is surely several stages further in the direction of formality than is a tie. A jacket does not "dress-up" an open-necked shirt.

I also disagree. Short of actual black or white tie, there's no set continuum of formality. It's generally in the way the garments are worn. I've seen people look like they just stepped off a private jet in nothing but a polo shirt & shorts and I've also seen people who look like they slept in their suit.

Wearing a pocket square seems to be appropriate in any case but, perhaps, a patch breast pocket. Otherwise I think the jacket looks like it's missing something.

 

Scroll through a few months of What Are you Wearing for some ideas, there are usually a fair number of casual sportcoat looks there over the course of a month. Here are a few of mine in case they help any:

 

Wearing a pocket square seems to be appropriate in any case but, perhaps, a patch breast pocket.

Why would there be an exception for patch pockets? See Flusser's Dressing the Man for a photo of Clark Gable wearing a PS in a patch breast pocket of an odd jacket. Looks good to me.

 

Wearing a pocket square seems to be appropriate in any case but, perhaps, a patch breast pocket.

Robert Redford did it.

Cruiser