By Bryan Ergle
Look around the world. Look at how men and women dress and act. It is remarkable how ‘far out’ fashion, behavior, and culture has become. The quintessential men’s suit and tie are so far gone, they’re practically a separate fashion statement! It is ironic… this day in age, that a man dressed well, with even a hint of class, and maybe some expanded knowledge of the world beyond pop culture, is viewed as a peculiarity. I’d like to work, if only in my corner of the internet, to change that.
Allow me to offer an example – some months ago, I went to church for Christmas, as I always do… in my case, at midnight. I wasn’t as well dressed as I felt the occasion warranted – it had been a long day on Christmas Eve, so I put on a suit, but a decided to forego the tie. I figured I would stand out, but I would endure. It’s the price I’d pay.
Well, I was right, I did stand out… but not because of my lack of tie. Rather, it was because I was dressed in a suit – or indeed, dressed well at all! I was surrounded by people in everything. Jeans and dress shirts, a holy no-go in years past but begrudgingly accepted when some people had come so attired, were now somehow at the higher end of the spectrum! There were people in sweatpants and t-shirts, women in yoga pants, including some with ‘PINK’ or other writing across the derriere. Sneakers and sandals were in abundance.
This had never been the case before! And I certainly attend a church, and in a denomination, with a more conservative slant. Even if people didn’t dress well other days of the year, they dressed up for Christmas and Easter. Had I entered the Twilight Zone? “Submitted for your approval… a well-dressed man among a crowd of gym-goers…” What happened? The answer? This is what people do now! But it shouldn’t be that way… or at least, it shouldn’t always be that way.
Is there a time for t-shirts and shorts? Yes. Jeans and sneakers? Sure. Yoga pants? Er… questionable, but we’ll say ‘yes’ for now and address in more depth later. For now, as fashion and style lie side by side in the gutter, curled up and mewling and trying not to die, we’re going to address, for men, one of the travesties that has crept into everyday life, in places wherein it does not belong: the t-shirt.
I’m about to ruin a lot of peoples’ day, and make more than a few mad, but such is the unsatisfying nature of life. Men, aside from when you’re lounging about inside your own home, or maybe beside a pool, I’m going to give you a simple, hard and fast rule here: Unless you’re working out, or working outdoors, you shouldn’t be seen in a t-shirt. Ever.
Ouch, seems harsh, right? Well, c’est la vie. It’s the price we pay for having been given the reins to fashion, and having beaten it like a rented mule instead of cultivating it.
A little background – most people don’t realize that t-shirts were created to be underwear. That’s right, they’re the upper body equivalent of boxers… and I’d like to assume that our readership wouldn’t go outside in boxers without covering those up, either. They’re meant to be lightweight, comfortable, underwear, to wick sweat. An evolution of the runic, which goes back to Roman times and beyond, worn under togas.
In the twentieth century, more modern t-shirts came into being, still as underwear, but in areas where high heat was found, people working outdoors, often farmers, would wear a t-shirt without an overshirt. This wasn’t a fashion statement, or trying to ‘be casual’, rather, it was the opposite… it was a means of maintaining modesty, despite conditions that many people today would say called for going shirtless. It wasn’t an attempt to change fashion, and it would have been unthinkable to do more than heavy, sweat-ridden work in such apparel… it would have been seen as a point of pride, to be sure, not to be seen in just a t-shirt when greeting company, or heaven forbid, going shopping or to church.
Slowly, unfortunately, the unintentional trend was picked up, and t-shirts became workwear, eventually moving into the mainstream as casual clothing in the 1950’s. Some seventy years later, we have people going shopping, out to dinner – even at nicer restaurants! – and church on Christmas, in what is still, essentially, underwear. We go out to for a nice dinner at an expensive, upscale restaurant, only to find people in t-shirts, and wearing hats at the table while eating. How far we’ve fallen. There simply is not an excuse for it, and it is one of those areas where we can do better, we need to do better… as men, we should have more respect for others, and for ourselves.
If you’re going out, a golf shirt (or polo shirt, if you will) should be the barest minimum. There are so many options made with so many technical fabrics today that make them comfortable, lightweight, and breathable, that there’s just no excuse for less. For nicer affairs, obviously, a dress shirt is more ideal, but the ‘when’ and ‘how’ for golf shirt vs dress shirt, etc, is something best saved for another time. If you’re wondering about going on vacation, maybe being on the beach, and how to be comfortable in a nice breeze, that’s what materials like linen are made for. Find a nice button-down linen shirt, or maybe a even a guayabera shirt.
Clean out the closet… get rid of the majority of those t-shirts, many of which you likely haven’t worn in years anyway. Save a few for loungewear, and for exercise and yardwork. The rest, I recommend donating to a homeless shelter. T-shirt from your favorite band? I promise you, they pay handsomely for plenty of good advertising. Those quirky t-shirts with questionable logos and whatnot that you got from a beachfront shop on that one trip? Yeah, you’re never wearing that (I hope). Toss it. Once again, and with gusto – have more respect for others, and more respect for yourself!
And remember: Unless you’re working out, or working outdoors, you shouldn’t be seen in a t-shirt. Ever.
