is wearing a shirt without an undershirt improper for the golden era?

[green papaya]

I normally wear white cotton undershirts with all my button shirts, including camp shirts, Guayabera Shirt / Cuban style shirt

but when it's over 100 sometimes I skip the undershirt

it looks more proper with an undershirt

plus it feels more comfortable so you dont feel the frabric & seams rubbing on your body

[Flat Foot Floey]

So you didn't read about the Clark Gable situation after the sucess of "It happened one night"? In this movies his takes off his shirt and doesn't wear an undershirt underneath. There is an urban myth telling the undershirt sales dropped after the movie.

[Miss Stella]

(Ok, I'm sneaking in over here....not all men now look like Clark Gable did back then! IMHO, please wear the undershirt, it will make your shirt look neater, more finished. Yes, ladies notice these things. Scurrying back out to rejoin the ladies....carry on )

[Edward]

I think that varies with culture... afaik, over here the normals at least find it massively geeky (in a bad way) to wear a vest (i.e. an undershirt). Personally, I don't give a damn one way or the other whether anyone finds me more or less attractive based on what I prefer to wear, but them's the breaks.

[Shangas]

I wear an undershirt/singlet, mostly because it provides a nice layer of warmth. In a pinch, a regular old T-shirt will also suffice.

[Edward]

I wear an undershirt/singlet, mostly because it provides a nice layer of warmth. In a pinch, a regular old T-shirt will also suffice.

Around the time I got into vintage, I started buying proper vests instead of wearing my old band t shirts under a collar and tie. The big revelation was not wearing them for warmth in the Winter, but for making things bearable in the heat. Seemed counter-intuitive, but in practice it has made all the difference in the world, especially in crazy, stupid hot places like India and NE China in Summer.

[herringbonekid]

personally i don't like the look of an undershirt (in England we call them vests) if it's visible beneath thin shirt fabric. but maybe that's because i don't like thin see-through shirt fabrics.

[Old Rogue]

I generally don't wear an undershirt in warm weather. Too hot for our eastern NC climate.

[R.G. White]

I think it has a bit to do with age too. Younger guys (raging from kids to, maybe, early or mid-twenties) can more or less pull off not wearing an undershirt. It doesn't look sloppy. Older men on the other hand should wear an undershirt. It just seems more appropriate. I think it also depends on how much the undershirt is/isn't showing. If you aren't wearing an undershirt and a good portion of your chest is showing it's going to look pretty gross unless you're hairless.
I would think it was more or less a matter of preference and comfort, but maybe I'm wrong.

[tealseal]

I always wear a white cotton undershirt. For me it does two things:
1) It keeps a clean, trim look, especially if you follow Matt Deckard's suggestions about tucking it into your undershorts

2) More importantly, with the temperatures here sitting pretty at 100+ degrees, I tend to sweat. If I'm wearing an undershirt, I sweat into it and don't sweat on my dress shirt. This means that there aren't any visible sweaty spots in my armpit and back area. Plus, a white undershirt is MUCH easier to launder than a dress shirt; if you do get sweat stains on it, or if the zinc in your antiperspirant stains your shirt's underarm yellow, you can use bleach and hot water wash.