The white tank top: it’s everywhere, in everyone’s wardrobe, young, youngish, young once, fashion-follower or fashion-basher; man, woman, everyone in between. It’s ubiquitous, common, and since Coco Chanel brought it to life, timeless ever since.
For me, it’s my gauge for mojo. Did I eat too much dessert? It ranks second only to jeans as the one piece of clothing you can’t get enough of. And during summer, it becomes more and more of a necessity — comes out from under the covers of the suit or jacket and into full view in its white glory.
Every year, as summer nears, I always get excited at the thought of acquiring a new wardrobe. There’s something about the sun during this time of year that makes everything more vibrant and shimmery; it makes you almost want to sing a Snow White tune while dressing up. As a devout dresser-upper, I always challenge myself to try new looks, unusual styles or colors that are “not me.”
Although I’m usually pretty successful at my attempts at style expression/statement — making fashion-style chemistry — there is always one scrub I can never seem to diss: the ubiquitous white tank. And it seems I’m not alone. When I text-surveyed my friends and asked what they thought was the one piece of clothing they could never get enough of, the unanimous winner was the white tank top. Well, actually, more answered “jeans” but who wants to read another jeans story? It’s not often you get a down-and-dirty, fact-based analysis on the top tank tops of the season. I did the dirty work, so you don’t have to. Scoured the malls for the crème de la crème tops so you don’t have to get your hands dirty. Here’s my top six.