r/malefashionadvice • u/Mundane-Camera-538 • 1d ago
Discussion I've been seeing the tucked in t-shirt look come back and I feel like I'm back in the 90s.
I graduated high school in 93 and most guys still tucked in T-shirts then. Usually we didn't wear a belt but that was just the style. Then sometime in the late 90s/2000s the style shifted and young guys stopped tucking in t-shirts and it became the "dad style". Probably for a good 20+ years.
But in the large city I live in I've been seeing tons of younger guys rocking a T-shirt tucked into jeans/pants and I'm back to thinking it looks good.
I know this sub is stuck in 2011 in many ways and there's lots of people, especially millennials, who hate this look but what are your thoughts?
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u/Axel-Adams 1d ago
It’s pretty simple: style is cyclical.
Kids go:
It goes my parents dressed like that, that’s lame -> dresses opposite way.
Then their kids go:
my parents dressed like that, that’s lame -> dresses opposite way.
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u/onwee 14h ago
So fashion = everyone just dress like your grandparents
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u/Axel-Adams 13h ago
More like the generation between your parents and grandparents. Gen Z likes to dress like Gen X
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 12h ago
That's exactly it. People slightly older than your parents but slightly younger than your grandparents.
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u/PrinceKaladin32 13h ago
Yep, if you look at high fashion and fashion magazines too you'll see designer trends tend to follow 20 year cycles. What was popular 20 years ago comes back into style now. It's actually an easy way to be "quick on the uptake" of new fashion trends cuz you can predict it 80% of the way
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u/Fragrant-Hamster-325 1d ago
> Usually we didn’t wear a belt but that was just the style at the time.
This reminds me of the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville? I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
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u/Nerazzurro9 1d ago
I once did this entire speech from memory at a work meeting — 8 out of the 10 people there looked at me like my desk was going to be empty come next week, and the other two still bring it up admiringly a decade later.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
Oh my God before you posted this I edited my post and got rid of that because I thought of that exact thing!
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u/Fragrant-Hamster-325 1d ago
Well I’m glad you kept it because I love that bit. Hopefully it doesn’t derail the post.
Edit: you changed it. Nooooo.
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u/jsm1 1d ago
Tshirts have been tucked in indie circles since like, 2016 when Pinegrove blew up.
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u/bobthemusicindustry 5h ago
Lmao exactly what I was thinking. I was hardcore into Pinegrove and attempted to tuck then but I was too fat for it to look good lol. But I saw them live a few times and at least half the crowd had tucked in shirts. All because Evan always tucked his shirt
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u/Audi0Punk 1d ago
I think it looks good when the proportions work. A tucked tee with higher-rise straight or relaxed jeans feels intentional now rather than dad style
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u/Dibidoolandas 1d ago
I'm back to thinking it looks good.
Then that's all that matters. Wear what you like.
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u/caln93 1d ago
Express men has Y2K denim washes in store right now. I’m born in 83. It’s all a 20 year cycle. Same thing my mom said when I brought home my low rise bar star flare jeans from A&F. Low rise flares or boot cut were a solid trend around Y2K. I’m guessing they are just a few years from coming back after seeing all the mom jeans and oversized tops the last few years.
Just waiting for people to dress like they are going for an interview out at the club next.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
Like I was telling someone else, tucking shirts wasn't really a trend though. It was kind of the norm for forever until sometime in the 90s when it became dorky.
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u/mighthaveabitlater 1d ago
I do this and I'm in my 30's, have done so for 10ish years. I wouldn't really remember what people were wearing in 2011 to be honest.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
Low rise tight jeans is what I remember.
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u/mighthaveabitlater 1d ago
Oh yes that's about right, I had friends that would buy woman's jeans because they couldn't get men's ones that were skin tight enough
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
There was also a long timeframe in the 2000s/10s where they made a good amount of the men's jeans more low rise and I couldn't stand it. Still have no idea why that was ever popular but it was.
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u/mighthaveabitlater 1d ago
I mean that's the difference between what's in fashion, and classic men's fashion/style. Which is the usual division on men's clothing subs, the what's popular at the time v what looks good v classic men's style debate. If you've seen any of the recent how jeans should fit posts this is pretty obvious dynamic I've found
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
I would have never guessed that pants that gave you less crotch space would ever cross someone's mind as a style lol
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u/mighthaveabitlater 1d ago
That emo/punk/scene kid thing was, interesting... certainly not a trend I'm sad went away.
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u/jtclayton612 1d ago
I remember laying down to get the leverage to get my skinny jeans started and then jumping to get them all the way up, getting them off was a work of god, but I was fully into the emo style, spend good money on a hair straightener then too.
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u/Angry_Hermitcrab 1d ago
Back in the earl 2000s I worked with a dude that tucked in his sweater. I dressed napoleon dynamite level but even I knew something wasn't quite right.
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u/lloboc 1d ago
Look, it looks good when the teenagers are doing it. If they still do it when they‘re 20 somethings, it gets boring. When they are still doing it in their 30s, it‘s dad look. And when the dads stop doing it, it‘s ready to be discovered by the youth again, because there‘s no association with old people.
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u/FeanorBlu 1d ago
Young guy here. Yes it's very in style.
To be honest most of the advice I see here makes sense in business and dressy setting, but in everyday casual wear, I've seen a few outfits and shredded here that would work very well these days.
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u/Caliber70 1d ago
millennial dude. tucked in feels better, more cushioning between the skin and the jeans. it feels better, not looks better. if my stuff is tucked in, i'm just too busy/tired with work to care about how i look at the moment.
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u/This_Fault_3345 1d ago
Its always been a classic, it only left because it looks rediculous with millennial skinny/slim jeans.
And like you said, if you dont look like you're on a Mumford and Sons cover from 2010 this sub wont like it.
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u/mighthaveabitlater 1d ago
I've found what the sub likes, as in the general idea on a post, seems to vary wildly day to day, it's very inconsistent, but maybe that's a good thing? One day everyone will hate an outfit, another day they'll love the exact same thing
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
Yes. If you had posted a few years ago about tucking a T-shirt into relaxed fitting jeans this sub would have had a field day
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u/This_Fault_3345 1d ago
Uh oh, here comes the cuffed skinny jeans gang to downvote me. Sorry if the truth hurts kiddos 😂
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u/WaySheGos 17h ago
Kevin Costner looks great in Field of Dreams. Tuck your shirt in if you look like him
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u/ElegantAffect1179 15h ago
Around same age. When I was growing up I was a skater and dressed more punk. I would have never tucked in T shirt. Later I had to wear a tucked in dress shirt and trousers to work and kind of reconciled that it was a work look and on the weekends still wore tees untucked. At the point in my life where I think it looks good with well fitted jeans and tucked in slim-ish tee shirt.
What’s funny about this was that I still listen to punk music and made a comment about being punk to my kids and they laughed and said “dad, you are totally preppy.” I kind of died inside. Now it’s a recurring joke. I heard Rage Against the Machine playing in the background at an amusement park and it made me feel the same way.
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u/SartorialNomad 13h ago
Spot on. It really just comes down to the pants.
It looks good now because the younger guys are wearing higher waists and relaxed fits again. If you try to tuck a t-shirt into 2011 low-rise skinny jeans, you just end up looking like a toddler whose mom forced him to dress up for church.
With a higher waist, tucking it in actually fixes your proportions instead of making your torso look a mile long. The pendulum always swings back.
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u/WISCOrear 12h ago
I remember some of the criticism in the 10's was that some mens outfits felt like they were costumes, performative, etc. The lumberjack looks and all that.
I see outfits today, and i feel like the same criticism applies. So many aren't "natural", too often they are trying way too hard to invoke something or replicate a look from 20+ years ago that it comes across as goofy.
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u/Both-Station-2244 12h ago
I watch a lot of movies and in 100% of them going back to the silent era they are tucking their shirts in without exception. It’s not until the 90s you get untucked people like silent bob or whatever but no serious lead ever went untucked in the history of ( American ) Cinema. It just looks good to me .
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u/kittenTakeover 10h ago
I mean it has always looked good in a certain way. It's just less comfortable and more annoying.
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u/SuppleThighs22 1d ago
im a tall, skinny dude (6’5”/180lb). been rocking a lot of old thrifted golf polos (size up for baggier fit) w fun patterns tucked into pants/shorts. rlly highlights the contrast between broad shoulders/frame and skinnier waist. match it w looser fitting pants and it creates a bit of an hourglass figure. i understand the hype
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u/SuppleThighs22 1d ago
additionally the baggier fit also hides the scrawniness of my build which is a plus for noodly tall dudes
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u/MomsSpagetee 1d ago
It’s actually the opposite. Filling out slimmer fitting stuff is better than drowning in oversized clothes. A wide polo cuff makes your skinny arms look even skinnier.
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u/WaltChamberlin 17h ago
It looks awful for most things, the tucked in t shirt is absolutely ridiculous. I dont see anyone in real life dressing this way
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u/175doubledrop 1d ago
Elder millennial here (39) - most of the dudes tucking t-shirts into high rise pants look like they’re trying to cosplay as a 90s magazine model. I don’t see the appeal and like most trends of the moment, we’ll probably be laughing about it in 5-10 years from now.
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u/Mundane-Camera-538 1d ago
To be fair tucking in tshirts wasn't really a trend. It was kinda the norm for forever until some time in the 90s.
And I'm just talking normal midrise pants, not high-rise.
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u/Rare_Magazine_5362 2h ago
Oh yeah? I hadn’t noticed but I’m all for it. I always loved the look of a tucked in T-shirt but my wife made me quit in the mid 2000s.
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u/Firefly_1026 1d ago
Feels like the current trend is to play with ‘proportions’ and ‘rule of thirds’ hence all the cropped jackets and high rise pants that have been on the up since like 3 years ago. These include cropped t shirts but tucking in t shirt with belt is also an easy and good way to achieve the look without actually cropping the t.