Or is this NOT a tee shirt

[radiatordrama]

???

This!

It's a polo shirt which is a type of t-shirt. I can't imagine any circumstance in which it mattered whether it was a t-shirt with a collar or not. Both are as informal as each other.

It's a polo shirt. At my work which had a business casual dress code you would have been allowed to wear this. But a tee shirt would not have been allowed except on a dress down day.

This actually does come up quite a lot! Just this morning my child was told to put on a tee shirt for school when actually it should be a polo shirt. Last night I was told that the tee shirts had been put on to wash. Etc.

Definitely not a tee shirt.

Exactly this.

Wouldn't bother me to call it a t-shirt at all, indeed that's what we call DD's polo shirts for school.

It’s definitely a polo shirt.
T-shirts have no collars.

BUT the distinction is not nearly as distinct as that between a “shirt” and a top. In the US and Australia “shirt” can mean any top but in the U.K. it’s definitely something that buttons all the way down neck to hem.

So it’s a polo shirt which is a type of t shirt. A bit like a polo neck is type of jumper or sweater. You can break it down in all sorts of ways. Knitwear into categories. Tops into categories. Some things cut across categories - those Uniqulo soft shirts that button through with a collar

Yeah, but has he ever played polo?

It is a polo. t-shirt 👕 doesn't have a collar. Shirt have different names and collars.
But particularly a t-shirt 👕 doesn't.
And the photo shows a polo-shirt. (What defines the polo is the fabric and the collar).

In my home it would be a T-shirt.
Yes, it has a collar and can be further specified as polo T-shirt, but for all practical purposes (washing, hanging, fabric) it is just a T-shirt.

Yes that’s what my late father called them. He dressed formally with shirt and tie on a daily basis but occasionally wore his Fred Perry!

OP you can call it any name. Even school top, as soon as everyone understands the meaning. I wouldn't think much about it.

@Epidote this morning I asked if, for the love of god, we can just call them school shirts. I don't want to be annoyed so choosing a different term seems safest...

'constantly confused' lol.

How often are t-shirts a topic of conversation, that this is an issue 😂

Unless you both work in a t-shirt factory, I can't see why you are constantly walking around in a haze of confusion over your t-shirt/polo shirt conversations

Haha, we used to try to wear them instead of school shirts, but still with school tie! Never got away with it - the nuns had eyes in the backs of their veils 🤣

That's true, until the mid 80s they were not seen outside a PE bag and were called 'my aertex' , they weren't usually seen as a main stream garment, I think they were in the US before the UK as such.

This is a good way of putting it!

Agreed it is a polo shirt which is a type of t shirt.

My children have polo shirts for school and other ones for home, so if I wanted to specify I would say “school top” or something. No big source of stress here.

Its like a primary school shirt that kids wear because they can't dress themselves with buttons yet.

I don't see the great point in differentiating because its equally as casual as a t-shirt and almost the same.

To me a school shirt would be different. An actual shirt.

I agree is a polo shirt. It falls into the t shirt family rather than the shirt family. Definitely couldn’t wear them if a shirt was needed for the occasion . I wouldn’t think anything if someone wore them if they were describing themselves as wearing a t shirt but I would think they were wrong if they wore one and said they were wearing a shirt. If that makes any sense!

A polo shirt is a type of tshirt.

An actual shirt is just a shirt though... the shirts you wear to secondary school are equal to white formal shirts you would wear to work so why would you call it a 'school' shirt.

The Polo/Tshirt ones we are talking about are rarely ever worn by everyday people outside of primary school.

I think it’s a specific type of T-shirt: a polo shirt. All polo shirts are T-shirts but not all T-shirts are polo shirts- see also, all sandals are shoes, but not all shoes are sandals.

This says exactly what I was going to!