Fashion Oops: Very Thin Shirts

There was a two or three year phase where I loved wearing white dress shirts. They seemed to look clean and semi-professional to me, even if I had the sleeves rolled and never did the top two buttons. I had them on a rotation and couldn't wait until it was that time again. Then something happened.

Lots of things happened that year. It was like my brain switched on, but let's leave those other stories for anther day. One of the realizations I made happened on a morning as I was getting ready for work. Right before leaving, I went to the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror. Something caught my attention. There were two dark blotches on my upper chest area.

P.S. I'm a dude.

The Shirt

What is that on my shirt?
Nip. I noticed that in good light, two features of my chest were fairly prominently visible across a light, flesh-tinged canvas. Suddenly, all those comments I heard about how thin this shirt was came to the front of my mind. What? I'd been wearing this thing for over a year once every week or two. How did I never notice this?

Close-up, looking good?

Maybe it was denial. This was a really comfortable shirt with a good pattern. Part of the reason it was so comfortable was because it was so light and breathable -- both probably due to it being thin. I bought it in the spring, so it was probably a summer-weight shirt.


Close-up, in the light.

Slippery Slope
After I had that epiphany, I switched to something else for the day. Wearing an undershirt was just not my thing. There was extreme anxiety over the next few weeks as I made "checks" with all of my tops. Three other dress shirts had to be condemned: a darker colored dress shirt with the same thin material, a slightly thicker white dress shirt, and my "I don't care anymore" white t-shirt. That second thicker white dress shirt was also bought in the spring of the year.

The worst part was thinking back about how many times I had worn those semi-transparent shirts so proudly -- especially when in front of people I wanted to impress. Shudders.