Q: I’ve always been able to tuck my shirt in, and I’ve worked hard to keep my belly flat enough to have my shirts look decent tucked in. Now my wife tells me I need to not tuck it in. My question is, am I not supposed to tuck any of my shirts in anymore, or what shirts do I tuck in? I’m seeing almost everyone with their shirttails out. And now I feel foolish when I tuck them in. Oh, and my age — I’m 60-ish.
— Wannabe fashionable
A: In our opinion, by the time you’re 60, you should be able to wear your shirt in the style of Beavis as the Great Cornholio if you want to. (And if you don’t know what that is, we suggest you spend a little more time watching classic YouTube videos and a little less time on the golf course.)
Which is to say, one reaches a certain point in life when one stops paying attention to what is fashionable and sticks with what works. And by 60, if that’s a white button-down shirt tucked tightly into a pair of knee-length madras shorts from J. Crew, accented with black socks and mauve Birkenstocks, so be it.
But that’s neither here nor there, is it?
Your wife has identified a trend — flapping shirttails — that began several years ago, and of course became ubiquitous. Sure, it’s another sign of the decline of Western civilization, but then so was the sight of men wearing Crocs, and we lived through that, right?
Untucked shirts used to simply be a way to camouflage a beer belly. Not a particularly effective way, of course, because it just looks like you’re hiding a beach ball under your shirt. But it is one tool in the average guy’s fashion toolbox.
Bonus tool: You can leave the top button of your pants undone, and we all need that option on occasion.
And yet somehow, thrillingly, this sloppiness morphed into fashion. It’s no longer considered unseemly to have your shirt untucked in most situations, including having shirttails out under a sport coat. But that doesn’t mean you should do it.
Here are some guidelines:
We’re somewhat ambivalent on this business of wearing a sport coat over an untucked shirt. We tend to think it looks like the wearer had a few too many boilermakers at lunch, or, as our mother might put it, “Tuck that shirt in! Do you want people to think you were raised by wolves!?”
So your wife is right, in all but the most formal circumstances — weddings, funerals, court appearances — shirttails are acceptable.
But we’ll return to our earlier point: Style is personal. Don’t be railroaded into dressing a certain way just because everyone else is doing it. If guys did that, we’d all be wearing khakis and blue shirts.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Male Call answers questions from men and women on dating, relationships, etiquette, men’s style and more. Contact Male Call at malecall@mercurynews.com.
