The longer length t-shirt has been a staple item of clothing for a lot of us since the 90’s. Whether you’re; six foot five and simply wear them because they are the only t-shirts that reach your pants, five foot five and like longer length fitted tee for fashion purposes or you are new to the whole ‘tall tee’ thing – you may struggle to find exactly what it is you are after, which is a high quality tall tee that remains in shape wash after wash.
With the ever growing range of tall tees that labels are releasing and all varying in sizes,price and material we thought what better time for us to take a look exactly at what makes a good tall tee?
Length
First things first, when we are buying tall tees we expect them to be long, this is a no-brainer – but how long? Labels longer length tees vary in length and this can make it difficult to decide, especially if you are like the rest of us and shopping online and only have numbers to judge by. Depending on the brand some tall tees will be targeted at specific groups such as snowboarders who are renowned for liking their tall tees super long and steezy. The easiest rule of thumb to go by is that with tall tees you want them covering either all or some of your pants zipper. If you’re trying a so called ‘tall tee’ on and it doesn’t even reach your waist line, forget about it – this is probably a crop top that someone has just labelled by mistake.
Fit
After working out whether the tall tee is actually ‘tall’ enough for you, next it’s worth while making sure that the actual fit is what you are after. Traditional American styles of regular tees would have you believe that you will often need to buy a XXL just for the right length, however then they often end up way too baggy and loose. Tall Tees on the other hand should be more fitted, all be it not too tight, you don’t want it to look like you are wearing a tube sock! Further to this you also want to make sure that the arms are a length that you like, if a little too long this is not too much of a worry as you can usually just roll them up as is often ‘the look’ these days. Lastly with fit you want to make sure that the neck hole is not too tight like a lot of the t-shirts that you would expect to find in South East Asia generally are.
Material
Always check the label to make sure your tall tee you are purchasing is 100% cotton. It’s nicer on the skin, natural, breathes better and won’t be itchy. Generally however it goes without saying to buy cotton unless of course the t-shirt is print heavy and as such may be required to have parts that are polyester blends. With more premium quality t-shirts they will use nicer cottons such as a combed cotton which goes through an extra process and ends up been a lot softer as well as stronger and has that nice elasticity to it that you would expect from a higher quality tall tee.
Weight
The weight of your tall tee is really important and by weight we do not mean that you literally want to put your tall tee on the scales and weight it but rather the actual weight or thread count of the material. A heavyweight tall tee is much nicer as it’s not only not see through like your cheaper ones but also keeps its shape, is warmer and shows that you are getting value for money.
Colour
It doesn’t matter whether you prefer wearing black, red, blue or yellow – when it comes to colour we are talking about the actual quality of the dye. The last thing anyone wants is for their brand new tall tee to lose its colour in the wash. Or worse yet for it to turn all your socks and jocks pink. Colourfast tees are what you want to look for. These will keep their colour wash after wash so you won’t be constantly replacing your black tees in the wardrobe.
Stitching
This should apply to all tees, but in particular tall tees – they should always be double stitched so that they don’t simply unravel in the wash. The stitching should match the colour of the t-shirt and the actual ribbing on the neck of the tall tee shouldn’t be too large like some of your cheaper American brands that have 2 inch thick ribbing that not only looks awful but can also warp the shape of the t-shirt.
Durability
Durability of course can often be hard to tell when shopping for a t-shirt. As we have learnt we cannot simply judge durability by the price of the t-shirt or by the testimonials on a website. Durability can however be determined by the factors above. Particularly the weight, stitching & material used in the tall tee. We put all our tall tees under rigorous durability tests with our street team of BMXers and skateboarders, because we know at the end of the day you want your tall tee to last.
Price
Lastly when determining which tall tee is right for you, make sure you consider the price. This of course is probably done first by many shoppers however to a lot of people they think price determines the quality. It doesn’t. Just because you are buying a $80 t-shirt does not mean that it is made any better or fits any better, generally it just means that the label has a bigger advertising bill for the consumer to foot. Tall tees, especially basics should be affordable enough that you can fill your wardrobe with them, because as anyone who has ever purchased a tall tee knows – once you switch to tall tees you won’t want to go back to wearing regular length tees.
Since at Plus 2 Clothing we specialise in longer length clothing and don’t do any ‘crop tops’ as we like to call them you can be assured that our whole range of tall tees meet the above criteria. Feel free to check them all out in our online store.
