April 2010

Are you a tucker? If so, this reader has a question for you on how you keep your shirts tucked neatly…

Do you know of any device that will help a woman keep her shirt neatly tucked in? I envision something along the lines of suspender types of things that might function something like the shirt bodysuits they sell at Victoria’s Secret. For example, they could be made of a stretchy fabric and could clip (or be sewn?) onto the front and back of the shirt on each side, and would run between the legs along the bikini line. Am I just crazy? I’ve done some internet searching, but all I can find is some horrible military things that clip from the bottom of one’s shirt to the top of one’s socks. Not exactly useful if a woman is wearing a skirt. Has anyone had a tailor install such things on shirts to keep them in place? Any other good tricks?

We must admit, this is a fascinating question. We’re not much of a tucker, but obviously there are some women out there who swear by it. (We’re a little curious as to whether there will be any “it’s a little embarrassing but it works” tricks, like tucking shirttails into underpants — come forward, ladies, you’re in a safe place.) The most we can say is that we continually see bodysuits from retailers, such as the Wolford turtleneck pictured above (Colorado String Bodysuit, available at Saks.com for $245) and of course the button-front bodysuits they sell at Victoria’s Secret (pictured at right, Essential bodysuit in solids, available for $32.50). Readers, what are your tips and tricks for keeping shirts and blouses neatly tucked? Are there any “rules” you have for when a shirt should absolutely be tucked (e.g., do shirttails matter)? To be honest, we’ve just gone by the gut here — if it looked good with pants untucked, we wore it like that. For our $.02, we can think of very few examples when a shaped shirt cannot be worn untucked.