You can’t get any simpler than a plain white t-shirt. It’s a design classic. And a Sunspel white cotton t-shirt is a classic among classics. GQ magazine understand this, which is why they picked a Sunspel plain white t-shirt for their 100 Best Things In the World Right Now.
Once, the t-shirt was an undergarment. But wars tend to break down social mores, and after pictures were published during the Second World War of American GIs wearing t-shirts and looking like bona fide heroes, the look caught on. It was a cool, casual, edgy look, and it became a symbol of youthful rebellion.
Marlon Brando wore a white tee in a Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and The Wild One (1953), and then James Dean followed suit in Rebel Without A Cause (1955). These guys looked like sharp. They were cool as hell and they oozed attitude.
Why the white t-shirt? Because it’s stripped down and single-minded. It has no affectations. It’s just about the simplest way you can cover a man’s torso. Without collars or buttons or decorative elements, it doesn’t give a damn for tradition. It just is what it is. It’s liberating to wear.
In the years since the 50s, the white t-shirt has never quite lost its edge or its status. But when you’re wearing something as plain and simple as a white tee, you want to get it just right because there’s nothing to distract the eye from the thing itself.
We make our t-shirts fitted to the body so they’re flattering and sleek without being tight. We keep the neck trim narrow at just 1.5cm and the length medium so it looks good either tucked in or outside trousers. Nothing is overstated.
We also use only the very finest Egyptian cotton. We select cotton with a long staple (or bud) so that when it’s turned into a thread it’s smoother than shorter staple cotton. We then twine two of these threads together, which makes them even smoother. We even singe off any little hairs that might be sticking out. The result is exceptionally soft and light cotton which is also strong and long lasting.
We’ve been making t-shirts for as long as they’ve existed, in fact even longer, because we were manufacturing cotton undershirts before the term ‘t-shirt’ had even been coined – way back in the 19th century. This long experience goes into each one of our classic cotton t-shirts.
All this is why stylist William Gilchrist is able to describe a Sunspel t-shirt as ‘a thing of purity… the Savile Row of t-shirts’.
A Sunspel white tee is the essence of simplicity. And that’s a very sophisticated quality indeed.
Please let me know when you have some whites or blacks on offer (perhaps 4 or 5 for £100?) such that a country boy can afford them.
– Gordon Lynes
nice post. thanks.
Sunspel t-shirts are without equal.
– Matt
The Tshirt, as you well know, is historically a piece of underwear – Brando caused a sensation in the 50s when he wore one instead of a shirt in ‘Streetcar’.
Today guys wear vests – known as tank tops or (pejoratively) wifebeaters. Being articles of underwear they still look a little bit out of place or risque, just as Brando’s Tshirt must have to theatre-goers/cinema-goers 60 years ago.
In breaking out from its underwear cage, you could argue that the Tshirt is a forerunner of boxer shorts sticking out of low-slung jeans. But I wouldn’t. Not ever.
– Oliver
I now own several Sunspel t-shirts and polos. There is simply no better t-shirt anywhere to be found than the classic Sunspel. Quality and simplicity in design are timeless.
Do you know the style of Persol sunglasses the model is wearing?
best regards,
Alan
A white T-shirt has always been in style and goes with almost any outfit and for the office a white T under an open collar shirt is clean and neat on dress down Fridays or after work and taking off the coat and tie at the local bar with the office crowd or your friends.
A white T-shirt and jeans is neat for buming around on the weekends and for casual dates–weather permitting.
Sunspel T-shirts are the MOST comfortable and the best for staying sharp the longest!!
– Jack
If I purchase a shirt and it doesn’t fit, can they be returned?
– Dave
Yes, you can return any garment within 3 months.