First, a little history. At one point in history, a shirt was an undergarment. Apparently throughout history, there has always been a garment that was equivalent to the shirt, assuming an upper body garment was worn at all. At some point, an undershirt was introduced, though I have done absolutely no research to find when that happened. But when it did, the shirt became the "over-shirt," at least in some places. The shirt was a common outer garment even when a coat was commonly worn no matter what the weather.
The white t-shirt was (supposedly) originally worn in the US Navy to cover the men's chest hair, this being worn under the wide neck jumper. The men in the US Army habitually wore the shirt with the collar fastened, with or without a tie, and so the t-shirt was unnecessary. But a sleeveless undershirt was worn instead.
In the British Army, undershirts or t-shirts (vests) were not issued or worn down into the late 1940's. Woolen vests were issued for winter wear and withdrawn in the spring (unless requested for wear by motorcyle messengers!). Now they wear t-shirts like everyone else.
Now in these latter days, you see a t-shirt (not necessarily white) being worn under polo shirts. I think the reason there is pure fashion--the layered look. In my case, I wear a t-shirt, nearly always with a v-neck or u-neck, to help keep my shirt a little cleaner. I find that my deoderant tends to stain my shirts over time and a t-shirt eliminates that problem. When did men start using roll-on deoderant?
Which leads me to a pertinent question: how do we manage the cleanliness problem when not wearing underpants? Do we wash our pants more often?
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