The teeny tiny T-shirt is back again

NEW YORK – Ms Lauren Caruso had never really bought into the idea of dressing for one’s body type. “It’s incredibly limiting,” she said, adding that the concept is just code for wanting “to look thinner or taller or attempt to reinforce other Eurocentric beauty standards”.

But as a 36-year-old who says she is 1.57m tall, she makes one exception – baby tees.

Ms Caruso, a freelance writer and brand consultant in Los Angeles, finds the shirt style ideal for her petite frame. “The trend is practically tailor-made for me,” she said. “Most baby tees hit me just near my belly button, which gives me more flexibility to wear it with something high-waisted.”

In September, British-American actress Jemima Kirke took to Instagram to share her “important T-shirt resource”, as she announced in the caption: Swedish children’s brand Mini Rodini.

In the 45-second reel, Kirke slips into a snug shirt featuring a cartoon man hoisting cartoon weights. The shirt size? Nine to 11 years. Her age? 39.

Baby tees – those ultra-fitted, sometimes cap-sleeved, sometimes cropped shirts – are back. And though women like Ms Caruso or Kirke – not to mention crop-top aficionados such as models Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid – may be slender enough to wear a child’s shirt, there now exist many more options to span generations and body types.

Ms Colleen Hill, senior curator of costume and accessories at the Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology, said the return of the baby tee is part of a broader revival of 1990s and Y2K fashion trends.

“It’s quite versatile and it can be very flattering,” she said of the shirt. “You can wear it in a casual context or you can wear it with a silk skirt, for example, and dress it up a little bit, very much like what we saw 30 or so years ago.”

The baby tee also makes for a great layering piece in the colder months under sweaters or, for a throwback look, under a strappy slip dress.

Ms Caruso found the first baby tee of her adult life at a thrift store, not realising it was a child’s size until she took it home and noticed the Carter’s tag.

“I really just liked the cut of it,” she said. “It was perfectly cropped and it had kind of a cap-sleeved shoulder.”

Other so-called baby tees in her wardrobe are made for adults, and she typically pairs them with leather bomber jackets and loose jeans or leather culottes and a blazer.

Ms Meaghan Elliott, 22, a recent graphic design graduate who lives in Philadelphia, likes to pick up a child-size shirt instead of the woman’s cut, she said. One of her favourite recent finds is a child’s woodblock print T-shirt she found in Rhode Island featuring the Flying Horse Carousel.

She used to style her baby tees “strictly going for the ‘tiny top, big pants’ look”, but she recently branched out into pairing them with a pair of low-rise, boot-cut jeans. “I’ve been watching a lot of episodes of Sabrina The Teenage Witch,” she said, referring to the American sitcom (1996 to 2003) starring Melissa Joan Hart.

“I heard that if you have done the trend once in your lifetime, then if it comes back again, it’s not for you,” said Ms Tabitha St Bernard-Jacobs, 43, a mother of two, writer and Women’s March organiser living in northern New Jersey. “And I have completely disregarded that rule.”

She likes how the short sleeves make her shoulders look more defined, she added.

Ms Mecca James-Williams, 31, a stylist and editor of culture and commerce platform Jam, sees the baby tee as a celebration of femininity. She said she found them “classic and chill” while also “sexy and beautiful”. She sources her tees from vintage stores, online platform eBay or brands such as Meji Meji and Uniqlo.

Ms Katie Sturino, a body acceptance advocate and founder of body care brand Megababe, who lives in New York City, recalled that the baby tee trend of her high-school years was not exactly inclusive. “My friends would buy kids’ clothes and wear them,” the 43-year-old said. “I could never do that.”

Ms Hill noted a significant difference between the current iteration of the baby tee trend and its 1990s predecessor. “There was a very narrow view of beauty and fashionable body types” during its first era, she said – but she does not see that now.

“I see a lot of embracing of these styles that can look good on anyone. And I don’t think they’re necessarily limited by age, gender or body type.” NYTIMES