Mens T-Shirt

The Three Measurements That Define The Block

• Shoulder width against chest. A men's block puts more shoulder on the same chest measurement. If a shirt fits your chest and the seam hangs past the point of your shoulder, the block is wrong for you rather than the size.
• A straight side seam. There is no shaping in at the waist, so the shirt falls from the chest without following the body. This is what makes a men's tee read relaxed even when it fits.
• Body length. Men's bodies run one to two inches longer than the equivalent women's size, which is deliberate and is why a men's tee sits below the hip.

Where The Shoulder Seam Should Land

The single most useful check is the shoulder seam, because it is the one thing that cannot be adjusted afterward. It should sit on the bony point at the top of your arm. Past it and the whole sleeve hangs low, which drops the armhole and makes the shirt look a size too big regardless of how the chest fits.

Short of it and the sleeve pulls when you reach forward. Between the two, the seam being slightly outside the point is the more wearable error, which is why most people who are between sizes are better off in the larger one on this block.

Fitted Or Regular

A fitted men's tee narrows through the waist and the sleeve while keeping the same shoulder. It reads sharper under a jacket and shows more, which is a preference rather than an improvement. A regular cut is the safer choice for a printed shirt, because a design distorts less on cloth that is not under tension.

The jersey pieces here run closer to the body than the woven-feel cotton ones at the same nominal size, since a knit follows what it is on. That is worth knowing before comparing two size charts that look identical.

Length And What It Is For

A men's tee runs long because it is drafted to stay tucked, or to stay down when you raise your arms, and both of those depend on there being spare length below the hip. A shirt shortened to sit at the waist looks correct standing still and rides up at every other moment.

If the length is genuinely too much, the hem is the one part of a t-shirt that alters cleanly and cheaply. That is worth remembering when a shirt is right everywhere else, since chest and shoulder cannot be fixed and length can.

What Unisex Changes

A shirt sold as unisex is almost always cut on this same men's block with a different label on it. That means a men's tee and a unisex tee in the same size are usually the same garment, and if one fits you the other will too. It also means the reverse is worth knowing: choosing unisex is choosing a men's fit.

The practical use of that is in comparing across ranges. Where a men's chart and a unisex chart give the same chest and length numbers, they are describing one pattern, and there is nothing to be gained by ordering both to compare.