Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! Today's video is about undershirts. I briefly discuss
the history of undershirts, talk about whether you should wear one or not, discuss undershirt
etiquette, dos and don"ts and last but not the least, talk about how to buy an undershirt
and what you should get to get the best value for your money. I also want to show you my
favorite undershirt brand ::::::
Up until the 19th century, basically you will never see an undershirt in public and in fact,
what we call dress shirt today used to be undershirt back then. The purpose of underwear
was to protect your outer garments from sweat and not necessarily to insulate although that
played a side role. Fabric was really expensive, undershirts were only something a noble man
could afford whereas regular blue collar workers were happy to just have a single layer of
fabric which was not an undershirt. Today, the undershirt is used for three main reasons:
One is, you want to insulate yourself when it's cool outside, an additional layer of
fabric really helps keep you warm especially during winter. Two, undershirts protect your
precious dress shirts from deodorant stains. Yes! We all know them, deodorant and the aluminum
salts they use actually leave a residue and oftentimes looks white or yellow on your dress
shirts. Without an undershirt, you will inevitably get deodorant stains and usually dress shirts
are much more expensive than an undershirt so if you're on a budget and you want to make
sure that you get the most wear out of your dress shirts, an undershirt is an inexpensive
way to get more wears out of your dress shirts. The third reason to use an undershirt is for
performance reasons. To simply keep moisture away from your body especially when you workout
or do sports and usually today, they use certain blends of polyester to achieve that goal.
As a side note, in 1934, Clark Gable appeared in the movie "It happened one night". When
he actually took his dress shirt off, people could see that he was not wearing an undershirt
and many thought that was revolutionary and legend has it that undershirt sales dropped
by 75% thereafter. It took until World War II until men rediscovered the undershirt but
in fact during World War II, the G.Is and soldiers actually wore just the undershirt
like a t-shirt which is what evolved from this particular way of wearing the undershirt.
If you want to learn more about undershirt history, please check out our in depth guide
to undershirts here. Should you wear an undershirt or not? Let's discuss the pros and cons. If
you sweat profusely and the sweat is actually visible on your outside jacket, definitely
always wear an undershirt because it just creates another layer to keep the moisture
in your body and nothing looks worse than you standing there wiith a jacket with huge
sweat stains in your armpits. Also, one of the times I always wear an underhsirt is when
I wear stiff rounded evening shirts with white tie or black tie because if you don't wear
undershirt, you can get nipple chaffing which hurts and really uncomfortable therefore,
always wear an undershirt with black tie or white tie shirts. If you're often cold in
the winter, the undershirt really helps to insulate you and therefore you should always
wear one. If you easily overheat, youu should probably skip it. If you have a lot of chest
hair, an undershirt helps you to not show them in public and also when wear a thinner
shirt fabric, your chest hair can sometimes poke through and an undershirt will definitely
help you stop that. """"" undershirts have a deep cup, v collar so you will never see
them unless ofcourse you unbutton your shirt until your belly button which you should'nt
do anyways. Now let's talk about the cons of wearing an undershirt. Historically, elegant
men would not wear additional undershirt because the dress shirt was already the under garment.
In terms of comfort, not having an additional undershirt may be more comfortable and less
constricting because you simply have one layer of cloth and not two. Also, this extra layer
that's usually uncomfortable during summer because A. it insulates and B. it makes you
look slightly bigger simply because there's more fabric around your body.If your dress
shirt is madde from a very light weight fabric, you actually are more likely to see the undershirt
underneath of your dress shirt which is bad. Proponents of undershirts oftentimes claim
that it's more hygienic to wear undershirts but if you wash and you launder your regular
dress shirt after every wear, you'll be just fine and you don't have to worry about that.
In my experience, if you have a large wardrobe of dress shirts, you can get away without
undershirts but in any case you will always prolong your wardrobe with undershirt. Many
Elegant men I know such as Fabio Attanasio don't wear undershirts but at the end of the
day, it's a matter of personal preference and you have to make up your mind.
Undershirt dos and don'ts: First of all, if you decided to wear an undershirt wear an
undershirt and not a t-shirt. What's the difference? An undershirt is much thinner than a t-shirt
and it fits tightly to your skin and ideally it should not feel like it's there. Traditionally,
undershirts are ribbed because ribbed adds even more flexibilty so you can move around
without even feeling that you're wearing an extra layer. So keypoints, lightweight, flexible
and close fitting. Do not wear white or black tshirts or undershirts, this may come as a
surprise but white and black are actually too strong so they are actually visible underneath
your dress shirt as an outline simply because your skin doesn't have a white or truly black
color so ideally what you want is as little contrast as possible. If you have dark skin,
wear darker colors maybe even black. Don't wear a white undershirt. If you have very
light skin, try to get something that really fits that skintone but when in doubt grey
is always better than black or white. An old trick to make skin colored shirts for most
complexions is to use black tee. So basically, you take an undershirt that fits you well
in white and you brew very very strong black tea and then you put the shirt in a basin
and let it sit at that solution for about fifteen to thirty minutes depending on your
complexion. After that, just rinse the shirt and compare it to your skin tone and it should
really come close to a usually caucasian skin tone and if it's too light simply redo the
procedure until it gets to the point where it matches your skin. Ideally, you do this
with a lot of undershirts at a time so you don't have to do it once. Unortunately, this
doesn't work for all skin tones and so if you're black, you're actuall better off going
with a dark grey tshirt that you just buy off the rack so it is infact easier for you.
Up until now, I was not wearing an undershirt. Now I'm wearing one. Can you tell the difference?
Do wear very close fitting undershirts because when they're close fitting, you can move around
and they're stretchy. The armholes are high which allows you to move freely. Also what's
important is that you want your undershirt to be long enough so it will never come untucked.
What's really important is not to wear sleeveless undershirts. You will see the lines of the
ribbed ends on your shirt and if you don't wear a jacket, if you take it off, it looks
really unfortunate. If you have sleeves on your undershirt, you will maybe sometimes
slightly see a slight color difference if you wear a white or a black one. In this case,
I', wearing a grey one so you can hardly tell. Also, a sleeveless undershirt will not protect
your dress shirts from deodorant stains and that's one of the main points why you would
want to wear it. So it really defeats the point of having an undershirt that is sleeveless
which is also known as "wife beater" shirts. It may be a classic shirt that your grandfather
may have worn but in today's elegant men's wardrobe, there's simply no space for a wife
beater shirt. One of my pet peeves is when men show their tshirt or undershirt underneath
their shirt collar/ It happens often usually when they wear a crew neck or vneck, necks
that are not very deep and they don't wear neckwear. What happens then is you see the
tshirt which is sometimes white or yellow underneath the shirt and it is just ugly as
hell. If you have an undershirt like in this case where it's a very deep V cut. you cn
actually unbutton the first two buttons but not any further than that. Definitely avoid
crew neck shirts at all cost because it will always be visible and always go for a deep
cut v neck also make sure your undershirt has flat seams because the thicker the seams,
the more likely they are to show through your dress shirts. In terms of material, do wear
cotton or cotton blend undershirts because they're the most comfortable, they will absorb
moisture and make you look good and feel good all day long. Unless you go outside and you
run or do any kind of sports or excercise, I would stay away from dri fit or all polyester
undershirts simply because they're not as comfortable as cotton or cotton blended once.
As a gentleman, you should always try to keep your workout clothes and your dress clothes
entirely separate. Undershirts are never meant to be worn on their own, undershorts are simply
there to be worn underneath the dress shirt so if you just want to have a tshirt, wear
a tshirt or even better a Polo shirt, otherwise, put on a dress shirt. Last but not least,
here is how to buy an undershirt: Untimately, it comes down to two things; Comfort and looks.
Personally, I don't wear undershirts during the summer because it feels more comfortable
without them however, when it's cold outside undershirts can really help to make you feel
more comfortable and warmer. At the end of the daym, it's really a personal decision
but it never hurtsto have a t least a few undershirts to your wardrobe so you can wear
them if need be. Over the years,I had all kinds of undershirts. It ranged from like
inexpensive Hanes all the way up to very expensive ones with silk blends and what I've found
is cotton or cotton polyblends, not necessarily ribbed but flexible ones are really the way
to go. The best value I found in undershirts is from a company called Ribbed Tee. First
of all, their shirts are long, they are really snuggly fitting, their seams are very flat
and they are as comfortable as an undershirt can be. They also come in different colors
including heather grey which I'm wearing right now and it really helps to not show your undershirt
underneath your dress shirt. Another thing that's special about ribbed tee is that they
just don't say made in the US, they actually use American grown cotton which is then knitted
in the US and the shirts are made in the US. As we know, great quality can be made anywhere
but if you make everything from start to finish in the US, it's going to be more expensive
than in Asia. So a shirt from ribbed tea is going to be more than a shirt from Hanes at
the same time, add about 20 dollars or less for an undershirt. It's really affrodable
luxury. So my favorite undershirt from Ribbed Tea is this heather grey one with a deep v
neck cut. They also have some with ribs and they also have regular jersey knit ones but
personally I think this is a really great undershirt and you should definitely give
it a try. Unless they would ever come out with an undershirt in exactly my skin tone,
this undershirt fits all the criteria we've discussed. If you want to read more about
undershirts and see where you can buy Ribbed Tee, click here. if you enjoyed this video,
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