The varsity jacket has spent a long time being treated as a novelty, something you wear ironically or not at all. We think that’s the wrong read. A well made cotton varsity in the right colorway is one of the better casual layering pieces a man can own, sitting comfortably in that register between a bomber and a coach jacket without trying to be either. The problem has always been execution. Cheap wool sleeves that pill immediately, ribbing that loses its shape after a few washes, body panels that sit wrong on anyone past the age of nineteen. Cotton versions sidestep most of those issues and age considerably better. We’ve been looking specifically at options where the construction holds up, the fit reads like a considered choice rather than a throwback, and the palette works with what most men actually own. These are the ones that earn the name on the chest.