🎵 Chillin out with the crew in the schoolyard, yeah! Findin’ trouble, never lookin’ too hard!🎵

vaspider

Okay, let's try this without the errors and casual domestic abuse references and classism/racism!

All of the below may be worn "because I like how they look." When I say what they're worn for, I mean the intended practical intention of their design.

This is a compression tee or workout tee. They are usually made out of synthetic materials for moisture-wicking purposes. They are worn for exercise or workouts, to draw sweat away from the skin.

This is a muscle tank. It is worn for working out (lifting weights, most often) or showing off one's muscles.

This is a sleeveless tee. Note the different sizes of the armholes. This is pretty much just a fashion statement, two tickets to the gun show, etc. but sometimes worn at the gym.

This is an A-shirt, ribbed knit tank, or fitted knit tank. In the US it may colloquially be called a "wifebeater," but that's classist, racist, and fucking gross, so knock it off.

Originally intended as an undershirt, may be worn as a primary shirt. Still worn as an undershirt by many men/mascs.

This is a fitted tee. They come in crew necks (pictured) and v-necks, typically. These also started as undershirts and are often still worn as same, but now are often worn as casual shirts as well. The difference between one intended as a casual shirt and one intended as an undershirt is mostly just fabric weight.

This is a tee shirt, also known as a heavyweight tee (a reference to fabric weight), loose-fit tee, or unisex tee. Intended as casual wear.

This is a polo shirt. Usually worn fitted and tucked in as shown, unless being worn with shorts. This is a "dress casual" sort of shirt, the kind of thing a person might wear to a semi-nice dinner out with family during the summer, but it's also part of the work uniforms of a lot of working-class people now, so.

This is a Henley or y-neck. Usually 3-5 buttons at the neck and made of cotton knit. This started as underwear too - a warm layer for winter - and is still used that way, often layered with camp shirts, chamois shirts or flannels. Also worn alone. These are pretty common chores/work shirts in my experience.

This is a camp shirt or work shirt. It is made of broadcloth, denim, canvas, or another sturdy material. Worn either as an outer layer unbuttoned over a tee, tank or henley, or if it's a nice shirt in good shape you can button it up and tuck it in and get away with wearing it to a semi-casual thing, like a weekday dinner with friends or an event at church/synagogue which isn't a service, like a potluck or a meeting.

These can often be bought lined or quilted and used as a light jacket. I used these for throwing on real quick when going to bring in wood so the wood wouldn't chew up my forearms.

Now THIS is a flannel. The difference is this is made out of flannel.

Everything I said above applies to this, except flannel shirts are more "casual" than a nice camp shirt bc the material is softer.

Flannel. Shirts. Don't. Have. To. Be. Plaid. A lot of them are, but I own/owned plenty of solid color flannel shirts. I don't care for these as much for chores bc the soft material means stuff is more likely to poke through, but they're great for layering.

I'm out of pictures so hang on, adding more.

vaspider

This is a chamois shirt. It's another kind of work shirt, it's just made out of a different material. I owned like 900 of these when I was in high school, they were my favorites. From a practical standpoint I liked them better than flannels, even though flannels were more fashionable.

All three of these shirt types are really practical shirts. People wear them bc they look good, yes, but like, people wear flannels in the PNW bc it rains all the fucking time and I wore camp shirts bc I didn't like tearing up my arms or getting ticks.

These are BOTH going to be listed as a "dress shirt" on most websites bc SEO is a fucking plague. (David and Jake and I just spent 3 fucking weeks debating renaming our shirts and doing SEO research, yes, they BOTH get called dress shirts.)

You may see the one on the right called a "button up" or "button-up." Both are correct ways to spell the term. The one on the right is more dress casual, the one on the left, office wear or formal.

The difference between the shirt on the right and the shirts above is fabric and cut. The above shirts have thicker, sturdier fabrics and tend to be cut looser or more square. The blue shirt below is made of a light woven (sometimes knit) fabric, usually cotton, though satin, silk, linen and bamboo can also be found. It's also usually more fitted.

The dress shirt on the left is pretty much invariably made of cotton and is sometimes starched. You never wear a knit dress shirt (though you may layer a polo shirt with a blazer for a dressed-up casual look, like being a manager at a car dealership or a realtor or going to a summer wedding) and for formal looks you would generally not wear something like silk for the shirt if it's cut like this. It doesn't hold clean lines and tends to look sloppy.

When you get into dress shirts, though, that's like a whole other world in terms of collars and cuffs and so on, so I'll stop here.

izzetengineer

Adding a brief cultural note to the very useful post: If you're reading stuff set in the UK and you come across a description of someone wearing a vest, that's probably something along the lines of the A-shirt/ribbed knit tank/fitted knit tank shown above, especially if they're wearing it under a shirt that buttons up or wearing it as pyjamas (someone who's sleeping in 'a vest and pants' in the UK is wearing an A-shirt and boxers/briefs, not a waistcoat and trousers).

vaspider

Oh is THAT what Granny Weatherwax meant when she said "I've got three vests on"?! All this time I was like "I mean it's Granny, she might be wearing three waistcoats under her dress."

G-d, that makes so much more sense.

Sofia from the Golden Girls gestures outward with a hand and shrugs while holding a teacup.

vaspider

Oh, since someone mentioned "button-downs" in the tags:

You can spell either of these terms with or without hyphens: "button up" or "button-up." Hyphens or no hyphens are correct.

The difference between a button DOWN and a button UP is whether or not the collar actually buttons down to the shirt.

On the left: button-down. On the right: button-up.

And just to be more confusing, you can modify "button-down/up" with any of the other button-front terms.

This, for example, is a "flannel button-down" or "button-down flannel." Either order is fine.

This is a button-down work shirt and button-down chamois shirt. That only goes in one order. "Work button-down shirt" is weird.

And here, of course, is a button-down dress shirt, which you may alternatively call a button-down suit shirt, since it's intended to be worn with a suit. It's made of cotton with a stiff collar so it stays in place. These come in short or long sleeves.