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You need to wear shirts that fit. Hint: skin tight is not appropriate for dress shirts, no matter how many fashion models are shown wearing their 9th grade suit they outgrew years ago.
They are not too small, they are bespoke. Look it up.
They are not too small, they are bespoke. Look it up.
They're bespoke too small. A man's sack suit and the dress shirt under it are supposed to fit a certain way. Pulled tight at the buttons ain't it. Nor are high water pants correctly fit. A shirt that gaps open when you move around is sized too small. Doesn't matter whether you buy it off the rack or have it made to measure. In the former case, you're supposed to have it altered to fit properly anyway. Looking like you're still wearing your bar mitzvah suit at age 24 isn't a good look.
The "Dress Shirt" is properly considered a bottom layer.
When it's cold, layers beneath dress shirts are considered PERMISSIBLE.
Not all collared, non-knit, men's shirts are "Dress Shirts".
A lumberjackish plaid shirt (or a collared Western shirt, or a corduroy shirt, or a denim shirt, or some sort of designer shirt like the seldom-worn linen Ungaro creations hanging in my Decorator's wardrobe rooms - or other shirts worn in CASUAL settings) is fine with undershirt showing (or with cotton, cashmere, merino or silk sweaters worn underneath, if a man needs the extra bulk, to compensate for lack of upper body mass).
Among my business subordinates in various roles, during bad (warm) weather, I tolerate and even encourage men's wearing shorts and (non-tacky) Polos/Tees. But if you're wearing a "Dress Shirt" - particularly with a suit - you'd damn-well better be wearing a tie. So, the question of whether or not one's tee should show, it moot.
The Polo Shirt is properly considered a bottom layer (unless it has long sleeves, is bulky, and is being worn in cool weather). Again, one may opt to wear something beneath a long-sleeved Polo Shirt, which has more bulk than just a tee. In Summer, when a man is going from the outside heat, into an air-conditioned building, he may opt to don a BLAZER over the Polo Shirt - even if he's wearing shorts. If you're our guest, and we decide to dine out, at a place where ties are appreciated, someone will bring down the always-ready box of knit ties, which are fine with Polo Shirts. Presumably, you'll have on Car Shoes, or Stubbs & Wootton Slippers.
A few decades back (Late 80s? Early 90s?), during the period when Blue Collar things like Bowling were being retroactively gentrified (and pop songs by men, seemed to be dominated by nostalgia for early years spent as hoodlums in the Rust Belt or the New York Megalopolis) - all marketing aimed at the newly affluent - there arose a fad for having one's undershirt showing beneath one's dress shirt. Therefore, the look is the antithesis of "Preppy".
My South Carolina cousins (who, unlike me, grew up in wealth, going to the best schools, partying with Charleston Debutantes, and then marrying-into and bankrolling their families) called things like that "a bit 'grit'" (of Working Class origins). Upper Class Englishmen would call it "...a bit milk-in-first, dahling." But that was the whole point. It was about glorifying one's "Common Man origins", which supposedly made one trustworthy, virile, and hard-working - rather than being one of those supposedly scheming, lazy, fey Upper Class men. That Teeshirt-showing Look, said, "Hey! at heart, I'm still a good, honest workin' stiff, despite the fact that I'm now a high-powered.... ....and so you can trust me." Public figures were encouraged by their handlers, to adopt this conceit, to hide the fact that they were anything but trustworthy.
Apparently, over the decades, teeshirts showing under "Dress Shirts", has come to be seen as "correct" ...... by some people, at least. Me? I think it's kinda grit. Same with tees under polos.
Miss Manners believed that there things which were "beneath notice". She was thinking in terms of flatulence, rudeness, wardrobe malfunctions, physical frailties, and various faux pas. Personally, I do not generally consider the sight of male body hair, or the faint shadow of male nipples, to be beneath notice. But then, I've spent enough time around Yalta, Palermo, and Positano, to have seen grand expanses of chest hair, and various other male details, barely concealed by shirts of silk and linen and whisper-thin Sulka cotton. Let's face it, after a girl has plopped-down, poolside in Positano, beside a man whose bare and very-hairy chest is sporting a big Bulgari necklace of various candycolored stones.... well... one's threshold gets raised.
I wear an undershirt with a dress shirt, so that my inevitable underarm sweat will soil the undershirt instead of the (more expensive) dress shirt. Otherwise, nope. My office went casual about a decade ago, and my church followed suit soon thereafter, so the only time I have need of wearing an undershirt now is for a wedding or a funeral.
You need to wear shirts that fit. Hint: skin tight is not appropriate for dress shirts, no matter how many fashion models are shown wearing their 9th grade suit they outgrew years ago.
The "Dress Shirt" is properly considered a bottom layer.
When it's cold, layers beneath dress shirts are considered PERMISSIBLE.
Not all collared, non-knit, men's shirts are "Dress Shirts".
A lumberjackish plaid shirt (or a collared Western shirt, or a corduroy shirt, or a denim shirt, or some sort of designer shirt like the seldom-worn linen Ungaro creations hanging in my Decorator's wardrobe rooms - or other shirts worn in CASUAL settings) is fine with undershirt showing (or with cotton, cashmere, merino or silk sweaters worn underneath, if a man needs the extra bulk, to compensate for lack of upper body mass).
Among my business subordinates in various roles, during bad (warm) weather, I tolerate and even encourage men's wearing shorts and (non-tacky) Polos/Tees. But if you're wearing a "Dress Shirt" - particularly with a suit - you'd damn-well better be wearing a tie. So, the question of whether or not one's tee should show, it moot.
The Polo Shirt is properly considered a bottom layer (unless it has long sleeves, is bulky, and is being worn in cool weather). Again, one may opt to wear something beneath a long-sleeved Polo Shirt, which has more bulk than just a tee. In Summer, when a man is going from the outside heat, into an air-conditioned building, he may opt to don a BLAZER over the Polo Shirt - even if he's wearing shorts. If you're our guest, and we decide to dine out, at a place where ties are appreciated, someone will bring down the always-ready box of knit ties, which are fine with Polo Shirts. Presumably, you'll have on Car Shoes, or Stubbs & Wootton Slippers.
A few decades back (Late 80s? Early 90s?), during the period when Blue Collar things like Bowling were being retroactively gentrified (and pop songs by men, seemed to be dominated by nostalgia for early years spent as hoodlums in the Rust Belt or the New York Megalopolis) - all marketing aimed at the newly affluent - there arose a fad for having one's undershirt showing beneath one's dress shirt. Therefore, the look is the antithesis of "Preppy".
My South Carolina cousins (who, unlike me, grew up in wealth, going to the best schools, partying with Charleston Debutantes, and then marrying-into and bankrolling their families) called things like that "a bit 'grit'" (of Working Class origins). Upper Class Englishmen would call it "...a bit milk-in-first, dahling." But that was the whole point. It was about glorifying one's "Common Man origins", which supposedly made one trustworthy, virile, and hard-working - rather than being one of those supposedly scheming, lazy, fey Upper Class men. That Teeshirt-showing Look, said, "Hey! at heart, I'm still a good, honest workin' stiff, despite the fact that I'm now a high-powered.... ....and so you can trust me." Public figures were encouraged by their handlers, to adopt this conceit, to hide the fact that they were anything but trustworthy.
Apparently, over the decades, teeshirts showing under "Dress Shirts", has come to be seen as "correct" ...... by some people, at least. Me? I think it's kinda grit. Same with tees under polos.
Miss Manners believed that there things which were "beneath notice". She was thinking in terms of flatulence, rudeness, wardrobe malfunctions, physical frailties, and various faux pas. Personally, I do not generally consider the sight of male body hair, or the faint shadow of male nipples, to be beneath notice. But then, I've spent enough time around Yalta, Palermo, and Positano, to have seen grand expanses of chest hair, and various other male details, barely concealed by shirts of silk and linen and whisper-thin Sulka cotton. Let's face it, after a girl has plopped-down, poolside in Positano, beside a man whose bare and very-hairy chest is sporting a big Bulgari necklace of various candycolored stones.... well... one's threshold gets raised.
Well, skinny neurasthenic types that are always shivering and cold may wish to wear undershirts; but those of us with abundant vital force find them too hot, especially if wearing a dress shirt, tie, and coat. You might think northern climates are the place for undershirts, except that people in those climates (at least in the US) keep their buildings so overheated that you'll not need any additional warmth. Heck, in New England in January I often feel like I need to be wearing shorts and a tank top in the office.
Gotta disagree with you there. An undershirt protects you from sweating through your dress shirt. And I say that as someone that is hotter than he is cold, on the whole. It's truer the warmer it is. And I don't find that it makes you any hotter, if anything the cotton will cool you down a bit and you'll feel better not having sweat dripping all over you.
Not wearing an undershirt with a dress shirt is like wearing socks with sandals. Or Jorts to a golf course.
Weather you wear a v-neck, crew neck, or tank top syle, is up to you.
But to answer the OP's original question, I'm unlikely anymore to wear a t-shirt under another t-shirt. I'm unlikely to wear one under a synthetic blend golf shirt. I'll wear one under a traditional knit type golf shirt.
I never wear undershirt under a polo, as you can get Polos in many different grade of materials to suit the weather conditions.
This!
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