Longsleeve and t-shirt, layering before layering

What do Kurt Cobain, the quintessential icon of grunge, and the leading actors of TV series and films from the early 2000s have in common? Certainly, the obsession with layering a short-sleeve t-shirt over a long-sleeve one in a single outfit. As for why this style became popular, there might not be a need to overthink it too much, but it definitely makes sense to trace the history of this trend. Yes, because the combination of a short-sleeve t-shirt and a long-sleeve t-shirt is associated with attitudes, moods, musical genres, and often very different subcultures. Starting from Kurt Cobain's music in the 1990s, he was one of the first well-known figures to teach the fashion world that you can pair a long-sleeve t-shirt with a short-sleeve one. But with t-shirts, crewnecks, and hoodies available, what's the purpose of layering these two pieces in this way? It might have been Kurt's carefree and bold attitude that led to this choice, but it would later become an iconic pairing style in the years to come, thanks in part to the influence and impact his character had on mainstream culture and brand imagery. After the artist's death, the influence of grunge music on pop culture faded, making way for new musical styles (britpop, initially in the UK and then globally, and later, pop punk). People began to prefer more accessible, colorful, and less problematic themes compared to those described by Nirvana. Light-hearted teen dramas and science fiction films started to become more popular, like The Faculty (1998), where, to the tune of Oasis' "Stay Young" (speaking of britpop), Zeke Tyler, played by teen idol Josh Hartnett, is seen wearing a short-sleeve t-shirt paired with a long-sleeve one. One thing is certain: the trend outlived Cobain.

The long-sleeved shirt-short-sleeved shirt match gained its fair share of fame thanks in part to the explosion of skateboarding culture, but it was not until the early 2000s, with the release of Lords of Dogtown (set in 1975, however), that the look was recurrently present. And just to stay on the skateboarding theme, the customisation menus of the video games belonging to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater saga begin to make available the option of dressing the characters created during the game's storyline in a double jersey: the reason? We can speculate that a longsleeve worn under a t-shirt, for a skater, worked as a kind of placebo effect, making him believe he had some sort of extra protection to cushion falls from the board and limit injuries. But then - given the personalities mentioned so far and the relative contexts of diffusion - is the longsleeve and t-shirt combo to be considered cool? It was, but intermittently. It was before the habit of matching these two items of clothing was considered childish and teenage; partially 'blamed' on the socially inadequate character of Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. It is a style that has found itself orbiting on the border of cool and childish for years, becoming iconic in the Y2K universe, exhumed - as we know - by the fashion industry in recent years.

1017 Alyx 9SM FW23

Chanel FW23

Givenchy FW23

Hermès FW23

Jil Sander FW23

Kiko Kostadinov FW23

Sunnei FW23

Walter Van Beirendonck FW23

Walter Van Beirendonck, Sunnei e Givenchy decided to bring it back to the catwalk during FW23, albeit in very different ways. The first two focused on bright colours, making the longsleeve and t-shirt combo stand out in a very obvious way, Mowalola, on the other hand, according to Lotta Volkova's lighting, perfectly integrated the style in question in a magnificent layering exercise. Nowadays, in fact, the combination could fit perfectly into the layering trend. Literally 'layering', the term refers to wearing multiple 'layers' of clothing instead of basic, heavy ones; know that if you see more people wearing shirts, dresses, jumpers and trench coats all at once this winter rather than heavyweight hoodies and puffers, it's because brands - regardless of their price range and target audience - are trying to give layering a lot of attention (and make you buy more products than you need to stay warm). We see this in the lookbooks of Woolrich and Aimé Leon Dore, as well as by Supreme, a brand that is a devotee and proponent of the look, especially in its latest collaboration with Stone Island with the Two Tone L/S, a long-sleeved shirt simulating the effect of layering. In this period of general revival, nostalgia certainly plays a key role; and after all, how can one not be nostalgic for the one style that has united cool kids and losers over the years?