Certain fashion items feel timeless. Classic blue jeans, a crisp white T-shirt, the perfect blazer – all three seem to have transcended time, season and the whims of the trend cycle and become closet staples. They’re building blocks.
Except that if you look a little more closely, it’s clear that what makes these pieces continue to feel fresh and desirable season after season are subtle design tweaks. Even classics have to evolve.
Take the T-shirt. The details that make a tee feel right for spring 2024 are vastly different from the details we might have sought 10 years ago, in 2014. Or earlier (picture the baby tees Jennifer Aniston wore as Rachel in Friends from 1994-2004 and you’ll understand). In fact, few pieces will date a closet like the wrong T-shirt. Necklines, sleeve shapes, volumes and lengths all play a part in creating a whole that’s suited to the current moment.
A T-shirt might seem like a neutral item, a closet non-event, but there are so many ways it can go wrong. The fabric can be too flimsy to last or too thick to breathe. The cut can be too long to tuck in easily, or too cropped to wear without tugging down. The wrong T-shirts can be transparent, billowy, too tight, overly stretchy, suffer from a stifling neckline or be unintentionally revealing. A T-shirt is only two pieces of cotton sewn into a simple T-shape, relatively unchanged since their days as utilitarian undershirts. But trying to find the right two pieces of cotton sewn into the optimal shape can feel like a permanent quest.
When considering the details that make T-shirts work for now, start with the most prominent feature: the neckline. Steer clear of wide V-necks and deep scoops. While these had their moments in the early Noughties, the necklines to know now are crewnecks and narrow Vs. The former work in oversized and fitted tees (a high crew-neck can become an extra design detail when you layer the tee under a dress or shirt). The latter have a more modern feel than their predecessors, and they’re more flattering on bigger busts.
And so to sleeves, the other silhouette definers of note. The ideal sleeve shape for 2024 doesn’t encase, but rather kicks out slightly from the shoulder. Choose a style in midweight cotton jersey to ensure the desired stiffness (no one wants a wilted sleeve). If the main way you intend to wear the tee is under knitwear or shirts, then opt for a lightweight cotton style with neat cap sleeves, for ease of layering.
When it comes to cut, generous is the word. More amply cut styles are in favor. What keeps these from swamping the figure are cropped hemlines – a clever styling solution for high-waisted pants, these are ideal with wide-leg or barrel-leg pants styled with belts. Fabrics should never be clingy or filmy. Lightweight cottons work well for layering (try a striped tee under an unbuttoned shirt), but look for more substantial midweight cotton jerseys for structure.
Of course, tank tops aren’t exempt from the need to update. Instead of a deeply scooped, long-line tank, the styles that feel fresh for now feature close, body-hugging fits (look for ribbed fabrics) with a higher neckline, for a sporty-sleek feel.
On the other end of the right-for-now spectrum are the oversized styles. Wear loose over narrow pants or tuck the front into a pair of wide-leg jeans, for a defined waist that still feels relaxed. A short-sleeved boyfriend tee is the ultimate borrowed-from-the-boys item (if the boy is T-shirt icon James Dean).
Because that’s the thing about T-shirts: they’re chameleons, as suited to rebels without a cause as to executives looking for a way to modernize the suit. The most important thing is that however you choose to wear it, it should feel like you.
