A T-shirt would be deemed casual while a polo with it’s collar would be deemed smart casual, a more corporate business like style. When it comes to looking a bit smarter, polo shirts are much better than tee shirts, this is why some schools allow them in the YEAH, THAT LSU shirt and I love this summer months. It has the edge of smart over the average T-shirt. The Tall collar is an homage to the strip of leather worn by Marines of old that was used to protect against sword slashes to the neck. When females started serving in the Marine Corps in WWI a uniform was designed to be a militarized version of what women wore at the time, while the men retained the uniforms they had been using. The uniforms slowly evolved into what we had in modern times. Males wearing the high collar “Leatherneck” uniform and Females wearing the “Suffragette Suit”
