Simple things can be the most amazing. Vanilla ice-cream. Margherita pizza. Bacon sandwiches. And when it comes to menswear, few items are as simple or as celebrated as the plain white T-shirt.
It’s a classic piece donned by Hollywood legends Marlon Brando and James Dean at their most iconic. Unbeaten for versatility, white T-shirt outfits are almost infinite. Wear it with simple jeans or use it as a neutralising element, capable of tempering a pair of check trousers or balancing out a printed shirt over the top. It is a great way to show off a tan. It also enhances the biceps, which are sculpted by working out in the gym.
You need one – hell, you need five – but finding the right style can be an odyssey. How can you tell if a white T-shirt fits well, is washed well, and remains white? Well, we’ve done the hard work for you.
What To Look Out For
Fit
The perfect fitting T-shirt should accentuate your best bits while ignoring anything …sub-optimal. Arms should reach the midpoint of your upper arms. You want to allow air to circulate around the chest and shoulders while also making sure the material moves with your skin. The fabric should taper down at the waist, rather than draping downwards. Its hem should also be just below the waist.
You can achieve the look of an oversized tee by buying a shirt that is cut to this size rather than going up a size.
Fabric
Your white tee is most likely made from cotton or a blend of cotton and other fabrics. But not all cotton is the same. Pima Cotton is the best cotton. It has longer fibres than regular cotton and is smoother.
Slub cotton has lumps in it due to the weaving process which gives it a unique texture which doesn’t have to be ironed. Comber cotton fibres have been treated in a specific way before they are spun into yarn. This makes it extremely soft and durable.
While cotton blends are less sustainable owing to the fact that they’re more difficult to recycle, certain blends do offer extra benefits. Linen is cooler than cotton and helps to wick away moisture from the skin. However, it is slightly rougher. Elastane, a material that is often blended with cotton to help the wearer move freely beneath the shirt while maintaining its shape, is also a common blend.
Brands of White T-Shirts
Arket
The best thing about Arket’s T-shirts is that the brand doesn’t just measure them in small, medium and large. The fabric weight is also used to categorise the t-shirts. Its tees come in four measurements of grams per square metre (GSM) – the industry standard measurement for fabric – so you can choose between 150g, 170g, 220g, 340g. Fabrics with a high GSM have shorter loops to make them thicker. Lower GSM fabrics are finer, more loosely-knitted, and are made of fewer loops.
This 170gsm cotton mid-weight shirt is heavier and softer than your average shirt.
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Uniqlo
Uniqlo’s combination of value and quality is unmatched in the high street. The unique DRY Technology is one of the most attractive features of its white tees. It wicks away moisture from your skin while containing anti-odour, deodorizing and other properties. You will feel and smell fresh all day.
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Sunspel
What color would you like, Mr Bond? Well, we don’t know about any shaking or stirring but what we do know is that British label Sunspel specifically designed this white tee for Daniel Craig’s turn as 007 in Casino Royale. It’s made with a two-fold cotton for a smoother, silkier finish and a flattering fit on the upper body, even if you don’t have the wingspan of ol’ Danny boy.
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H&M Premium
Not only the second biggest clothes retailer in the world, H&M has pledged to become its most sustainable too. The aim is to use only recycled and sustainable materials by 2030 and be “climate positive” by 2040 (you can even take old clothes into H&M stores to be recycled). This simple – and sustainable – round neck tee is an example of the brand’s commitment to eco-fashion. From the Conscious range, it’s organic and 100% cotton.
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Mr. P
Coming from Mr Porter – the standard bearer of quality, up-to-the-minute menswear – the Mr P range finds a middle-ground with style and simplicity, and brings its pieces to life by putting the emphasis on small touches. This range has the two things that every man looks for in his clothes: quality and affordability. This lightweight cotton tee has been treated with a silicone wash to make it extra soft – as comfortable to wear as it is a bona fide classic to look at.
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James Perse
Excelling at basics by way of the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and its native head honcho designer James Perse, this eponymous label creates its white tees in a luxurious combed cotton, which might be more time consuming to create but leads to a softer material as the combing process removes any protruding threads that may poke into your skin while also preventing unravelling thread and boosting your v-neck tee’s longevity.
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Marks & Spencer
M&S continues to be among the most trustworthy places to restock your basics. This pure cotton tee is a straight-up, no-nonsense style, and luxuriously soft thanks to being designed with a raft of in-house technologies – Stay Soft, StayNew, and Cool Comfort – that keep you dry, the white bright and the fabric free from bobbles.
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Onia
In the last decade, beachwear has grown in popularity thanks to the success of British swimwear labels Orlebar Brown (or Brown) and Frescobol Carioca. In the US, Onia is the beach king. The brand’s love of summer essentials is evident in the design of this great white tee that dries quickly and has a handy SPF 50 built right into the fabric.
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Merz B. Schwanen
The Merz B. Schwarzen white tee is made in the exact same style and way as their first tee, which was produced in 1920. The low hanging deep scoop’s rep might have been tainted by the Jersey Shore crew, but the brand’s rep as the producer of some of the most luxurious staples anywhere in the world more than carries it through. It is a remarkable fit, as there are no seams on the sides, thanks to circular knitting.
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Everlane
Everlane’s style is based on ethical production. A self-imposed initiative of “radical transparency” means finding the best ethical factories and finest materials. It’s the opposite of fast fashion – garments built to last and be worn for years. This tee has a simple, yet detailed pocket. The loosely woven slub texture allows for a cool breeze and body heat to escape. The lighter cotton fabric ensures that the yarn gauge is finer than on other cotton garments.
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Cos
This classic cut white tee is a great example of Cos’s approach to style – an understated look, but a mindset that sets out to reinvent your wardrobe classics with contemporary and functional design. It’s still a staple of masculine casualwear, but the neatly-finished cut and the quality of the cotton gives it a smart edge that will pair well with pretty much anything else you own. It’s also soft, light and breathable, and cut a little more boxy than most.
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