Shirt - Misplaced Pages

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A shirt can be almost any upper-body garment other than coats, especially in menswear (the term "top" is more common in ladieswear). In the UK, a shirt is more specifically a garment with a collar, cuffs, and a full vertical opening with buttons: that is, a dress shirt or tailored shirt.

Kinds of shirts

shirt or dress shirt — a shirt with collar and full vertical opening with buttons; left and right sides of this shirt meet with the placket front.
- blouse — lady's shirt; the term is also used for some men's military uniform shirts.
- Hawaiian shirt or Aloha shirt — a colourful short-sleeve dress shirt, loose or not fitted and woven from very light fabric. Often informal. Also just called a "tropical shirt."
- guayabera — an embroidered dress shirt with four pockets.
T-shirt — a casual shirt without a collar or buttons, usually short-sleeved.
- halfshirt — a high-hemmed t-shirt.
- tank top — a sleeveless T-shirt.
  - A-shirt or construction shirt — essentially a sleeveless t-shirt with large armholes, 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.
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.
nightshirt — often oversized, ruined or inexpensive light cloth undergarment shirt for sleeping.

Tops which would generally not be called shirts:

tube top or boob tube — a shoulderless, sleeveless "tube" that wraps the torso (not reaching higher than the armpits, staying in place by elasticity or by a single strap that is attached to the front of the tube.
halter top — a shoulderless, sleeveless, backless 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.
onesie or diaper shirt — a shirt for infants which includes a long tail that is 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 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
- covering the shoulders, but without sleeves
- with short sleeves
- with half- or three-quarter-length sleeves
- with long sleeves, may further be distinguished by the cuffs:
  - no buttons. See 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 is worn. A link cuff is fastened like a french cuff, except is not folded over, but instead hemmed, at the edge of the sleeve.

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 either perceived as a shirt (worn with trousers) or as a dress (in Western culture mainly worn by women)).

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 occaisions.
  - straight collar — or point collar, a version of the windsor collar that is 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
With regard to 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, e.g. a tube top cannot 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.