wifebeaters Re: Closets and Wardrobes

[potioncat]

Ali:
> 
> However, I would follow your instinct to change the color, if only
> because men's wifebeaters are rarely anything but white.  Designer
> wifebeaters (yeah, that's not wrong) come in a million colours and
> sometimes have crazy designs.  If your author is 22, she (or her
> character) might be the Urban Outfitter type, and her wifebeaters are
> shorter, more fitted, and meant to be worn somewhat layered (aka throw
> an unbuttons shirt over it) or completely by itself.
> 

Potioncat:
And now from a younger point of view. My daughter (18)says the garment 
is called "beater"---they've dropped the wife. As in, "Mom, did you 
wash my pink beater?" Girls also call them tank tops because it is the 
same garment in different colors. Girls wear both the actual men's 
undergarment and tanktops.

Guys wear white or black beaters. All sorts of guys wear them, there 
isn't any connotation. I asked if it was part of a particular look. Her 
answer was that a gangster would wear his beater with low riding baggy 
pants (most likely sweats) while  a skater would wear his beater with 
tight fiting pants. No, Geoff, I don't mean underwear, but I don't mean 
trousers either

BTW, ganster and skater are styles, not necessarily people who are 
gangsters or who really ride skateboards.

Who would have thought that a humble undergarment worn by working class 
men would become a versatile fashion accessary. So the bigger question 
becomes, would you keep your beater in the chest of drawers, or the 
wardrobe?

Carol, if this book is ever published, I want to read it. Just because 
of all our input for the one word.

Potioncat, who now hears the song "Skater Boy" playing in her head, 
superimposed with the image of Edgar G. Robinson in a wife-beater.