Shirt Totally Explained

Everything about Shirt totally explained

In American English, shirt can refer to almost any upper-body garment other than coats and bras (the term "top" is sometimes used in ladieswear). In British English, a shirt is more specifically a garment with a collar, cuffs, and a full vertical opening with buttons; what is known in American English as a dress shirt.

Camp shirt — a loose, straight-cut, short sleeved shirt or blouse with a simple placket front-opening and a "camp collar."
guayabera — an embroidered dress shirt with four pockets.

T-shirt — a casual shirt without a collar or buttons, usually short-sleeved. It is a common shirt for informal events.

Ringer T-shirt — tee with a separate piece of fabric sewn on as the collar and sleeve hems.
halfshirt — a high-hemmed t-shirt.
- A-shirt or construction shirt os singlet (in British English) — essentially a sleeveless t-shirt with large armholes and a large neck hole, often worn by labourers or athletes for increased movability. Sometimes called a "wife beater" when worn without a covering layer.
- camisole — woman's undershirt with narrow straps, or a similar garment worn alone (often with bra). Also referred to as a cami, shelf top, spaghetti straps or strappy top.
tennis shirt, golf shirt, or polo shirt — a v-neck shirt with a full collar; opening often closed with buttons or zipper running partway down the front. Short or long sleeve. Sometimes embroidered with club or designer insignia. Often worn with a sweater vest.
- rugby shirt — typically a rugged long-sleeved polo shirt, of thick cotton or wool.
- henley shirt — a collarless polo shirt.
baseball shirt — usually distinguished by a three quarters sleeve, team insignia, and flat waistseam.
sweatshirt — long-sleeved athletic shirt of heavier material, with or without hood.
tunic — primitive shirt, distinguished by two-piece construction. Initially a men's garment, is normally seen in modern times being worn by women.
shirtwaist — a dress which actually is really a shirt.
nightshirt — often oversized, ruined or inexpensive light cloth undergarment shirt for sleeping.
sleeveless shirt — A shirt with no sleeves. Contains only neck, bottom hem, body, and sometimes shoulders depending on type.
- halter top — a shoulderless, sleeveless garment for women. It is mechanically analogous to an apron with a string around the back of the neck and across the lower back holding it in place.
- tube top (in American English) or boob tube (in British English) — a shoulderless, sleeveless "tube" that wraps the torso (not reaching higher than the armpit, staying in place by elasticity or by a single strap that's attached to the front of the tube.

Tops that would generally not be considered shirts:

onesie or diaper shirt — a shirt for infants which includes a long back that's wrapped between the legs and buttoned to the front of the shirt.

sweaters — heavy knitted upper garments.

jackets, coats and similar outerwear

Parts of shirts

Many terms are used to describe and differentiate types of shirts (and upper-body garments in general) and their construction. The smallest differences may have significance to a cultural or occupational group. Recently, (late 20th century) it has become common to use tops to carry messages or advertising. Many of these distinctions apply to other upper-body garments, such as coats and sweaters.

Shoulders and arms

with no covering of the shoulders or arms — a tube top (not reaching higher than the armpits, staying in place by elasticity)

with only shoulder straps, such as spaghetti straps

covering the shoulders, but without sleeves

with short sleeves, varying from cap sleeves (not extending below the armpit) to half sleeves (elbow length)

with three-quarter-length sleeves (reaching to a point between the elbow and the wrist)

with long sleeves, may further be distinguished by the cuffs:

no buttons — a closed placket cuff
buttons (or analogous fasteners such as snaps) — single or multiple. A single button or pair aligned parallel with the cuff hem is considered a button cuff. Multiple buttons aligned perpendicular to the cuff hem, or parallel to the placket constitute a barrel cuff.
buttonholes designed for cufflinks
- a French cuff, where the end half of the cuff is folded over the cuff itself and fastened with a cufflink. This type of cuff has four buttons and a short placket.
- more formally, a link cuff — fastened like a French cuff, except isn't folded over, but instead hemmed, at the edge of the sleeve.
asymmetrical designs, such as one-shoulder, one-sleeve or with sleeves of different lengths.

Lower hem of shirt

leaving the belly button area bare (much more common for women than for men). See halfshirt.

hanging to the waist

covering the crotch

covering part of the legs (essentially this is a dress; however, a piece of clothing is perceived either as a shirt (worn with trousers) or as a dress (in Western culture mainly worn by women)).

going to the floor (as a pajama shirt)

Body

vertical opening on the front side, all the way down, with buttons or zipper. When fastened with buttons, this opening is often called the placket front.

similar opening, but in back.

left and right front side not separable, put on over the head; with regard to upper front side opening:

V-shaped permanent opening on the top of the front side
no opening at the upper front side
vertical opening on the upper front side with buttons or zipper
- men's shirts are often buttoned on the right whereas women's are often buttoned on the left.

Neck

with polo-neck

with v-neck but no collar

with plunging neck

with open or tassel neck

with collar

windsor collar or spread collar — a dressier collar designed with a wide distance between points (the spread) to accommodate the windsor knot tie. The standard business collar.
tab collar — a collar with two small fabric tabs that fasten together behind a tie to maintain collar spread.
wing collar — best suited for the bow tie, often only worn for very formal occasions.
straight collar — or point collar, a version of the windsor collar that's distinguished by a narrower spread to better accommodate the four-in-hand knot, pratt knot, and the half-windsor knot. A moderate dress collar.
button-down collar — A collar with buttons that fasten the points or tips to a shirt. The most casual of collars worn with a tie.
band collar — essentially the lower part of a normal collar, first used as the original collar to which a separate collarpiece was attached. Rarely seen in modern fashion. Also casual.
turtle neck collar — A collar that covers most of the throat.

without collar

Other features

pockets – how many (if any), where, and with regard to closure: not closable, just a flap, or with a button or zipper.

with or without hood Some combinations are not applicable, of course, for example a tube top can't have a collar. Toplessness is the opposite of wearing a shirt of some kind, or a bikini top, etc. This is sometimes considered a kind of nudity, especially in the case of women.

Famous shirtmakers

Hamilton Shirts, Houston

Turnbull & Asser, England

Charvet, France

Luigi Borrelli, Italy

Shirts and politics

Redshirts was the name used by Garibaldi's troops in Italian Unification.
In 1920s and 1930s, the fascism choose coloured shirts for made explicit its ideology:

Black shirts was used by italian fascio, and in Britain, Finland and Germany (SS)

Brownshirts was used by german nazis of SA

Blueshirts was the name of the fascist mouvement in Ireland and Canada, and the colour of spanish Falange Española, French Solidarité Française and Chinese Blue Shirts Society.

Greenshirts was used in Hungary, Romania and Brasil

Camisas Doradas (golden shirts) in Mexico

Silver Shirts in the United States of America

Red Shirts in TurkeyFurther Information

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