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How Not Wearing a Shirt Became the Celebrity Style Move of the Year
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HOW NOT WEARING A SHIRT BECAME THE CELEBRITY STYLE MOVE OF THE YEAR

Not wearing a shirt is the new wearing a shirt.

By Cam Wolf

August 10, 2022
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Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte
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Many of history's greatest inventions came about by accident. They were just
butter cookies until Ruth Wakefield, as the story goes, ran out of nuts, swapped
in a Nestle bar, and came up with chocolate chip cookies. Dr. Spencer Silver was
researching super-strong adhesives when—big goof—he created the gently sticky
bond that would wind up in Post-It notes. And stylist Calyann Barnett was only
trying to help Dwyane Wade get a sense of the proportions of the suit he’d wear
for his final NBA game when he decided to try it on without a shirt. Wade caught
a look in the mirror and liked what he saw (“So, this is how I’m rocking it,” he
said, according to Barnett), thereby solidifying perhaps the biggest look in
contemporary celebrity fashion: not wearing a shirt. Since that fateful day in
2019, Wade has lost his shirt at every possible opportunity: as ESPYs host, on
his anniversary trip to Paris, at this year’s Met Gala. And Wade isn’t alone in
his no-shirt-no-problem lifestyle—suddenly, for many celebrities attending the
year’s biggest events, not wearing a shirt is the new wearing a shirt.

Going shirtless under a blazer isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. Many tried it
before Dwyane Wade: Nico Tortorella, Iggy Pop (who showed chest and feet at the
2020 Grammys), Travis Barker, and Shawn Mendes have all gone shirtless in
scattered appearances over the last five years. But in 2022, we seem to be
reaching peak shirtlessness. The look has become less a stunty one-off than a
regular fixture on A-list celebrities at A-list events: Oklahoma City Thunder
guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t seem to bring a single shirt to fashion
week, while New York Mets outfielder Starling Marte claimed he left his shirt at
the hotel at the MLB All-Star game. And while the move is mostly the dominion of
athletes—for good reason—even the non-chiseled Timothée Chalamet got in on the
action at this year’s Oscars. Donald Glover went yes-unitard, no-shirt at
Beyoncé’s Renaissance party. So how did going shirtless become one of the year’s
biggest trends?



Wade's last-game look

Issac Baldizon/Getty Images

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The reason for all these bare chests isn’t that deep, at least according to
Barnett, Wade’s stylist. She sees the no-shirt look as a natural point in
menswear’s cyclical rotation. After polos buttoned to the tippity-top, air ties,
and turtlenecks took hold in the mid-2010s, we’ve fashion-trended our way to the
opposite end of the spectrum. “It's just a part of fashion where it's like,
‘We've had enough. Now we're gonna go the other extreme,’” Barnett said. What
started with what she called “man cleavage”—a shirt unbuttoned to revealing
depths—has evolved into ditching the shirt altogether.



Of course, this isn’t just about the trend pendulum. As fashion takes steps
towards its freakiest and most enjoyable state, few things feel more carefree
than going shirtless on a red carpet. That was the case for Marte. He had spent
the morning trying and failing to nail his ESPYs look when Alan Suriel, the
Mets’ bilingual communications coordinator (and in-a-pinch stylist) suggested a
Tom Ford number—with one change. “[He]suggested I wear it without a shirt,”
Marte wrote in an email. “I warmed up [to] the idea quickly. Sometimes you just
have fun and show out during an event like that.”



Also, have you considered that it is currently insanely hot all the time, with
record-breaking heat waves taking place across the globe? Seen through the lens
of our rapidly escalating climate crisis, going shirtless seems pretty
reasonable. Barnett said Wade is going to take “any opportunity he has to not
wear a shirt, especially if it's going to be hot outside.” For Barnett and Wade,
the blazer-sans-shirt is a great way to meet some middle ground between
formality, practicality, and statement style.




Starling Marte at the MLB All-Star game

Rob Tringali/Getty Images

Going shirtless seems like a simple two-step process—remove shirt, party—but no
high-level maneuver is without a guidebook. Barnett prefers a jacket with peak,
as opposed to notch, lapel. “A peak lapel feels way more dressed and formal,”
she said, “So it's that juxtaposition of having this more formal, tailored suit
and then you have bare skin.” Fit matters here, too. A single-breasted suit
should be buttoned and tailored—”like the suit is painted onto your body,”
Barnett said—but an oversized fit calls for no shirt and no buttons. “Your body
needs to be like artwork,” she explained.

No matter how many rules you follow, going shirtless under a jacket probably
isn’t something the everyday dude is going to try out. Imagine showing up to
your buddy’s black-tie wedding without a shirt and trying to explain that,
actually, it’s chill because it’s tailored and buttoned. But going shirtless has
become a reliable way for celebrities, constantly playing a game of sartorial
one-upmanship, to outdo the competition—a logical endpoint in the race to stand
out. It’s hard to imagine a statement better built for big moments. As Marte
said of going shirtless, “I knew it'd be the look of the red carpet.”




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