| T Shirts, Tank Tops Article | A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt, usually buttonless, collarless, and pocketless, with a round neck and short sleeves, that is pulled on over the head and covers most of a person's torso. The sleeves of the T-shirt extend at least slightly over the shoulder but not completely over the elbow. A shirt that is either longer or shorter than this ceases to be a T-shirt. While the term "long-sleeved T-shirt" is often accepted as a type of shirt, "long-sleeved T-shirts" are technically not T-shirts at all, but have merely been given this name due to their thin fabric and similarity in design to a true T-shirt. T-shirts are typically made of cotton or polyester fibers (or a mix of the two), knitted together in a jersey stitch that gives a T-shirt its distinctive soft texture. T-shirts are often decorated with text and/or pictures. T-shirt fashions include styles for men and women, and for all age groups, including baby, youth and adult sizes. A sleeveless shirt, tank top, singlet, or vest is a shirt manufactured without sleeves, or one where the sleeves have been cut off. Sleeveless shirts can be worn by either gender, depending on the style. Undershirts are worn to prevent a man's chest hair from showing through a dress shirt, although sleeveless undershirts do not prevent sweat stains from showing through. Tank tops are often worn by athletes in sports such as track and field and bicycling. Tank tops have been popular warm-weather casual wear in the United States since the 1980s, and are regarded as acceptable public casual dress in some locales. They are mostly preferred in hot climates since the arm holes provide ventilation and the thin fabric provides comfort. In American English, a tank top is a sleeveless T-shirt-like garment that can be worn by either sex. It is often worn under the shirt as underwear, though more colorful and well-designed tank tops are usually worn as an outer shirt. The term is also used in Australian English, although the term singlet is commonly used to refer to the garment. In British English, the term vest is used, while tank top refers to a sleeveless pullover. In India, such a garment, primarily designed to be an undershirt, is called a Baniyaan. The name tank top, recorded in English since 1968, is derived from its resemblance to a tank suit, a style of one-piece women's swimsuit with shoulder straps. Its name derives from the 1920s term swimming tank, which is an obsolete term for what is now called a swimming pool. There is a female swimming version of the tank top, the tankini (a portmanteau of the words tank top and bikini) |
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