Ultimate Guide to Buying a T-shirt

T-shirt – the comfort wear that makes you feel free and casual making sure that it provides you enough room to be professional with their collared T-shirt. The T-shirt is called so because it forms the ‘T shape’. More than 2 billion T-shirts are sold each year and that a big number!  A student going to college has T-shirt as the most preferred options due to the comfort it provides over and above the price difference, it has from that of a shirt. They are a true fashion staple and has become a part of day to day life of millennial especially.

When deciding to wear something on your jeans, you have an option if you could go for a T-shirt or for a casual shirt but when it comes to formals, most of the cases it’s just the shirt that works!

Quite often than not you witness in the movies that a lot of tycoons and golf players wear those collared t-shirts, those are once such option available but that’s more of a casual attire when it comes to professional meetings and gatherings.

A lot of young guns prefer t-shirt over shirts when it comes to comfort and college wear, it is equally important to know about what designs to choose, what size should be taken, what brand to look for, what is the best price and material to be bought.

This article will guide you through all the checkpoints of buying an awesome t-shirt!

Let us first look at what are the different types of Tshirt available to suit the need as per the neckline.

Round neck T-shirt:

These are the most common type of t-shirt we will witness that people wear in their day-to-day life. It is best suited to :

  • Men with a slightly built physic
  • Men with rounded shoulders
  • Men with oblong or narrow face

Collared (Polo Neck) T-shirt:

Polo neck is more know so due to U.S Polo Assn. men wearing it during their matches and all these years, the brand lived up to its name. The type if well suited to:

  • Men with Muscular physic
  • Men with broad shoulders
  • Men who prefer looking classy over fashionable

V-neck T-shirt:

V-neck t-shirt is not much in demand by the ones wearing so; it is difficult to switch them to any other types. V-neck makes you look slim and fit giving a nice shape to your chest. It is highly suitable for:

  • Men with lean physic
  • Men with little to no back but the good neckline

Let’s focus more on the fit of the Tshirt and understand what could be your best bet.

The fit of the t-shirt is a very important factor. Most of you feel that either the length of the t-shirt or the chest size isn’t matching due to an uneven body structure. This is one reason why people generally tend to stick to one brand that gives the most awesome fit for them.

Make sure that your arms are properly visible with the sleeve length and circumference.

The t-shirt should your torso well. The length should be up to your belt so that when you kneel down, it doesn’t make you feel awful about it.

Men generally have issues with getting a perfect fit for their shoulder, as most men tend to have rounded shoulder as against square ones just like any other superhero like Superman. A V Neck or polo, in this case, would give you the best fit.

Most unfit men tend to have a beer belly look that makes the t-shirt an awful option for them. Prefer wearing a slim fit but something that has a good length to be able to look good on such men.

How to wear neutral colors?

Let’s start with the most awesome and highest selling t-shirt color,

  • Black! The color suits quirky/quote based Tshirt the best. Should be avoided by people with black skin tone. The color makes you look fit.
  • Gray is one shade that makes you look trendy and suits both black as well as blue jeans. The lighter shades known as melange grey looks awesome but catches the stains soon. The darker shades known as charcoal grey makes you look sleek but difficult to match with jeans.
  • Navy Blue appears to be a very sharp color making you look fit. The color goes well with any light blue color or greenish shade of jeans. It also suits well when worn with a blazer.

Ever wondered what are different categories of T-shirt available in the market and how you can make the most the out of it. Let’s check that out here,

  • Quote/Quirky Tshirt: Best suited to boy/men during college or parties to make them look trendy and close to fashion without overdressing.
  • Bollywood/series T-shirt: These t-shirts are more suited when you are a diehard fan of someone and want to follow them blindly. Most suited for parties.
  • Super Hero Tshirt: Best suited for parties but also preferred as a regular wear or night wears during pajama parties and get together.
  • Festive/Day based Tshirt: Festivals like Rakhshabandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi witness the spike of such t-shirts that can be worn in groups. Also, on specific days like friendship day, father’s day etc. t-shirts of that sort are more suited and well connected.
  • Custom Tshirt: Are you bored of being a part of mee too campaign? Buy customized t-shirts online which is very much in the trend. You can customize as per your need for as low as Rs. 499 with various options available. Check out the image below to find how you can do that

customizing process
The next thing to look for is what kind of sleeve should you prefer as per your body type.

Generally, men with skinny body type prefer wearing a full sleeved t-shirt over beefy guys prefer half sleeves to flaunt their muscles. Half sleeves t-shirt is also well suited to men with lean physic that makes them look fit.

What’s interesting to know is after deciding on every other aspect mentioned above, how to know what size is the best for you and how should you select the right one for yourself.

When you look to shop on basis of attributes like Small, Medium, Large etc. you might end up risking the Tshirt. For different brands, the size of such attributes is different. For example For women M means 36.5 inches, for unisex its 38 inches with most Indian brands, while for many brands serving international markets, the regular men size is 40 inches. Measure the fit of the t-shirt you like the most in terms of chest size and length and find a suitable size when making an online purchase. This will save you from making a wrong purchase.

The other thing that you look for when you buy any fabric is its material and quality. Let us go through a few checkpoints and understand them how to go about selecting the right material.

For round or V-neck T-shirts, we either have 100% cotton, Cotton with slight Lycra mixed for stretchability. Such, material should be biowash in terms of quality. The process removes excess threading from the fabric and makes it softer and solves a major issue that is fabric shrinkage.

For Polo neck T-shirt, the options available are 100% cotton, pc-pique, and poly-cotton. While 100% cotton t-shirt is the best to be worn, as it isn’t harsh on the skin.

Here is some more information on different type of combing and brushing done on the fabric to improve its quality:

Brushed Cotton:

The cotton is mechanically brushed to remove any excess fibers, resulting in a soft and smooth cotton. The fabric undergoes a mechanical brushing process and fine, metal brushes carefully rub the fabric to produce fine fibers.

Combed Cotton:

It is a combing method used to remove short fibers and to straighten and arrange longer fibers into parallel order to create a smooth, fine fabric. Carding is done before to separate the individual cotton fibers and to run them in the same direction. Combed cotton is usually used to produce finer T-shirts and is softer than Brushed Cotton. Short fibers are taken out.

Ring Spun Cotton:

It is made by twisting and spinning a rope of cotton fibers. This results in a really soft feel yet very strong fabric.

So, is the brushing only factor to be read for or understood before selecting the right fabric?

NO!

The other factors are GSM and Yarn count.

Usually we see GSM as a tool to understand the quality of the T-Shirt, and second, most people think that the thickness of the fabric is GSM.

GSM is actually Gram per Square Meter. So yes weight is the standard of GSM but if the finer yarn is used then the thin fabric will give better GSM. So the true quality of the T-Shirt is not the GSM but the YARN COUNT.

25s is better than 20s Yarn.

You can ask for all the vital information like this before you make a physical purchase or at least look for GSM when making a purchase from an online store.

So, a quick wrap up here as to what are different types, size preference, shades to suit, and type of design are discussed here.

Keeping in mind all these parameters will make your buying decision an easy journey. This ultimate T-shirt guide will help you make your best bet for an awesome looking, well fitted long lasting T-shirt.