

An Ode to the Tank Top

One Esquire writer—a female, no less—endorses this summertime shirt.

It's finally hot out there and you know what that means—all around the country, men are shedding their jackets, stuffing away their sweaters, saying sayonara to shirtsleeves and come the weekend, they're donning their bro-tanks.

Ah, the bro-tank. The male undershirt that has stretched out, gone mainstream and become synonymous with millennial men. The kind of men who dress suave and sartorially on their way to work but who might, come Saturday, slick back their bangs, throw on their Chucks, grab ahold of their board and head to the beach. Men who go to festivals and dig house music and a cold can of Mexican beer. Men who like to feel a cool swift breeze blow through their armholes and over their tanned skin on a hot summer night. Who might ball up that cotton to wipe the sweat off their brow. Who might throw it to the wind as they swan dive off a dock into a warm August lake. Men who might not give a damn, even if they do. Men who still feel young, even if they're not.

Endless Summer men, or the ones who want to be. And why not? It's officially July. The days are only getting shorter and we're not getting any younger. Throw on the bro tank any way you want – go simple or striped, with an image or a pattern. Wear it with colors or prints, with chambray or chinos. Sportswear or swimwear. Under a jacket or soft summer night sweater. Rock it with boat shoes or brogues or your favorite old-school kicks. The rules are as free as you are, so come, millennial men—O you youths, Western youths/ So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship—let your bro-tanks fly.

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