Seeing undershirt under white dress shirt?

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I'm here because of the NYT article, but I'd been looking for a resource like this for quite awhile, and I'm grateful.

My question pertains to undershirts "showing through" when worn under a white dress shirt, such that one could see the short sleeves under the dress shirt. It looks horrible to me, but I'd like to get an idea of how bad it actually is and what the possible solutions are.

Should I just stick to really heavy dress shirts so that undershirts don't show through? Sometimes I wear longsleeve t-shirts below, but I have a sense that it's not all that professional.

Thanks.

If you're wearing a jacket it shouldn't be an issue. No one could see the sleeves anyway.

i personally don't think it's THAT bad, especially if you have pale skin and dark body hair. (shudder)

what i would avoid is wearing a v-neck collar t-shirt with a buttoned-up dress shirt.

i would probably also avoid a tank t-shirt (a.k.a wifebeater) at all times.

another option would be to find (or have made) undershirts in a color close to your skin's.

just my personal viewing preference. i don't normally wear undershirts, myself.

/andrew

I personally don't like it, but in my case, I wear one underneath. I walk to the office, and would prefer that my nice shirts don't develop perspiration stains.

Just don't ever wear a crew neck under an unbuttoned dress shirt. In this case, a v-neck, or if the shirt is not too opaque, a wife-beater will do.

I'll have to disagree here. I often do this in winter, but one has to use t-shirts that don't look like underwear. If the collar of the t-shirt screams underwear it turns creepy.

B

I don't think it's all that bad usually, but as was said above, as far as t-shirts are concerned, it depends on the opaqueness of the shirt. Â It will generally look more obvious/unsightly with a broadcloth, for example, than with an oxfordcloth. I think tank top undershirts are to be avoided, unless they're of such a color that they are virtually invisible. No -- check that -- absolutely invisible. I don't necessarily find a crew collar undershirt with an open collar dress shirt to be unsightly, but it does seem to me that the combination works best as part of a 'hip', quasi-metrosexual look, with the TWO top buttons of the dress shirt undone. Â That way it has a more deliberate, sort of 'layered' look. Â And of course, if you're doing this, it's important to wear a very crisp white undershirt with a tight, fresh collar, not some slightly faded 'Fruit of the Tomb' where the collar banding is starting to stretch from too many go-rounds in an overheated clothes dryer.... Â

aw, but that's just when it starts getting comfortable...

I always wear a sleeveless tank-style undershirt when wearing a dress shirt.

If I do wear an undershirt, I wear a crew neck with the sleeves cut off. No one can tell that you are wearing an undershirt this way because the sleeves are cut at the seam where the arm begins and the neck is so high up on the shirt, no one can really see it.

I recommend a white v-neck.. If you aren't wearing your jacket, then it's obviously a casual enough situation where it doesn't matter if you can see the shirt underneath.

If I do wear an undershirt, I wear a crew neck with the sleeves cut off.  No one can tell that you are wearing an undershirt this way because the sleeves are cut at the seam where the arm begins and the neck is so high up on the shirt, no one can really see it.

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I did do this for a while years back... I think I stopped because I figured I was compromising the effectiveness of the 'underarm perspiration absorption' function by 50%.

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(Ranjeev @ 30 Sep. 2004, 3:40) If I do wear an undershirt, I wear a crew neck with the sleeves cut off. Â No one can tell that you are wearing an undershirt this way because the sleeves are cut at the seam where the arm begins and the neck is so high up on the shirt, no one can really see it.
I did do this for a while years back... I think I stopped because I figured I was compromising the effectiveness of the 'underarm perspiration absorption' function by 50%.
I wear a white crewneck undershirt, with a navy blue suit (2b, sb) and an an open collared Ascot Chang in a light-blue end-on-end, quite frequently. At first I thought the look was a tad gauche, and then I realized that it could be construed as inappropriate. Then I realized both of these things. And then I didn't care.

my pet peeve is customers who wear undershirts that are too large. An undershirt under a dress shirt should fit snugly to the body. Not the same size as you wear with a pair of jeans. Remember knit stretches. Carl www.cego.com

This is entirely a matter of personal preference.

Underwear absorbs perspiration so your outer shirt doesn't.  I happen to like "wife-beaters" at the gym as a look on their own.  But they're kind of pointless as underwear, since there's nothing to absorb perspiration where I sweat the most (I sweat -- there -- I said it.).

Casual wear -- I have no problem with t-shirts showing underneath an open collar.  But I do prefer one with a high collar that's not stretched out at the neck, as most underwear tends to do.

Seeing the outline of a t-shirt underneath a dress shirt?  I have no feelings about that.  

V-necked t-shirts?  Kind of dorky.

On April 7, 1975, a lithe American Airlines stewardess told me how glad she was that, as she said, "You're not the kind of guy who wears an undershirt."  

Haven't touched one since.  (A tee shirt, not a stewardess.)