How To Find The Best T-Shirt For Your Body Shape

Often considered as a not very exciting basic garment, the humble cotton t-shirt is found in every woman’s wardrobe. But there is much to be gained from having the right kind of t-shirts as part of your capsule wardrobe. 

Here is my checklist of things to look for to make your t-shirts flattering and easy to wear, rather than dreary and leaves you disregarding its value. 

Neckline

Let me repeat. Neckline. Vital to how a garment frames the face. Throat grabbing styles are the least flattering, soft scoops or lower V-necks are the most flattering.

Sleeve

A sleeve which finishes midpoint on the upper arm will draw the eye to that area and unless your desire is to accentuate your bicep and make it look larger than it is, it’s something to avoid. A cap sleeve which is angled on the arm or one which finishes just above the elbow where the arm is naturally slimmer are the easiest two sleeve types to wear.

Hemline 

A curved or asymmetrical hemline when you are wearing your t-shirt loose over the waistband is much easier to wear than one that is straight and chops the hips in half. Wearing a straight line around the hips adds 10lbs to your hipline without a single square of chocolate passing your lips! 

Fabric

T-shirts which have more than 4% elastane added to them will potentially give you more lumps and bumps than you might prefer to have on show. Because t-shirting already has stretch properties due to its knitted construction, 2% elastane is all that is required to give that little bit of drape and fluidness to elevate your basic t-shirt look to a more sophisticated one. 

What you wear below 

A perfect fitting moulded t-shirt bra keeps lines clean and no lace peaking through and/or a slinky camisole to give a second skin will raise the style factor of even the most basic tee.

There is another reason we should consider our t-shirt selection more carefully and that’s about their impact on the planet. An estimated 2 billion t-shirts were produced in 2016. How many t-shirts do you have? Go on take a few moments and have a bit of a count up. Not including sleeveless or full-length sleeves; what’s your number?

I have a stack. Without physically counting, I know it will be close to twenty. That’s a lot of t-shirts, which means a lot of cotton and water have gone into making them. I cringe at the ones I no longer have, the ones I was given in my teens and twenties when I ran a race, played for a team, helped out at an event, or wore as staff in summer jobs. Those could easily equal another twenty.

When it takes an estimated 2700 litres of water to produce just one t-shirt, my consumption alone in t-shirts has required 108,000 litres and that’s only one of their impacts. Pesticides used to grow the cotton then toxic dyestuffs during manufacturing; the environmental cost of cotton is high. I do consider myself fairly good at keeping my t-shirts in use after their days as a presentable item are over, as they become t-shirts to wear for riding. It seems no matter what you wear to the stables if it’s clean, it will automatically acquire some sort of horse-related gunge on it within minutes. A hobby hazard! Then those that are finished their days as horse t-shirts become painting t-shirts or cleaning rags, so I always made an effort to keep them in use for as long as physically possible. 

These items of clothing are not “just a t-shirt” and when we find the good ones that tick all the right style boxes, chances are you’re going to wear it and care for it for longer too.  Happy summer t-shirt times!