I realise that it’s every generation’s responsibility to do something that appears stupid to the preceeding one but what the hell is up with this fad? Where I work, the temperature varies depending on time of day and physical exertion. That’s why I wear a tee then a long sleeve over it. When my body temp starts to rise, I remove the long sleeve shirt and am cooler in the tee beneath. This short to long order seems to work well for everyone 25 and over. Those under the age of 25 reverse it and sweat all day. Whatever. At least this generation keeps their pants pulled up.
Have you already started standing on your front porch yelling at the damn kids to get off your lawn?
I do it all the time.
Mostly I have a good collection of tee-shirts that I like. This method allows me to wear them all season. Instead of buying a whole new winter wardrobe, I can wear cheap by-the-pack thermals or the long-sleeved tee shirts/henleys that come with my pajamas and put my favorite tee shirts on over it.
It’s a lot harder to find attractive and well-fitted long sleeved shirts. I have a long waist and so too much of one thing on top makes me look unbalanced. The tee-shirt sleeves thing breaks up the sillohette. It also allows more flexibility in my wardrobe- wearing my favorite orange polo shirt on top of a pink long-sleeved is a completely different look than wearing it over my black-and-white stripey shirt. It can be fun to make new combinations. When I’m staying someplace overnight, often I can get away with just packing an etra overshirt.
Finally, something about it feels less restricted when I’m doing a lot of layering. Theres less of a chance that the lowest shirt will bind underneath or that the sleeves will get pushed up in wierd positions. Trust me, there is no chance that in Feburary I’ll want to be anyplace with bare arms.
This was in fashion in the '70’s and I did it then. Now, I would feel like a doofus doing this, so I don’t. I am 43.
Some shirts (and body types) look good this way, others do not.
I remember this from the 80s. Will it go round in circles?
I think they like it because it creates stripes in otherwise solid color objects. There’s a girl I see every now and then that looks particularly cute in her black tee with bright pink sleeves.
When I purchase shirts (I don’t advertise so my choices are limited) I prefer those where the colors come in broad stripes. For instance where everything below the nipples is white but everything above is blue. I think it looks more interesting. I don’t particularly like close stripes though. Broad colors.
I thought this is how the kids today looked hip!
Damn, now I have to return all those non tour “cool band” shirts to Hot Hopic! 
How will I ever fit in!?
You’d like to believe that wouldn’t you? Just wait until the headband craze hits your town.
It was popular in the 80s and I happen to find it darn cute to this day (I am 30). Perhaps because the sk8r boys I stared longingly at in my ill-spent “good girl” youth dressed like this. 
If I had to find a justification for the practice it is that the long-sleeved shirt is plain and boring, which the short-sleeve has the cool design/message/Rush concert t image.
It never stopped. We wore this in the early and mid 90s as well.
Yeh, I remember that. I never did the look, though. I thought it was for people who were cold but couldn’t afford a coat. :smack: Mind you, I never was the Dedicated Follower of Fashion.
I like the look.
Plus, for some reason long sleeved t-shirts often have a wider neck then shortsleeved ones. If there’s anything I hate, it’s seeing the edge of one t-shirt crumpled up crooked under the other. Less chance of that if the short-sleeved tee is the top one.
Did you know the layered T-shirt can be bought as one nowadays? With fake sewn-in sleeves?
I remember doing this in Jr. High in the late '70’s. In those bygone days, you could even buy matching T-shirt/longshirt sets; I had ones in blue and green, with the Ts in velour.
If it makes you feel any better, they are now making long-sleeved shirts that LOOK like there’s a t-shirt over them 
I have some nice t-shirts that I wear over a mock neck, partly so I can wear them in more seasons, partly because there’s a nice color contrast, and mostly so I don’t have to wash them as much–the screen printing tends to fade from too many washes, so I want to avoid that.
I’ve always connected this fashion with Kurt Cobain’s look in the video for “Smells like teen age spirit”. For me, the fasion has the same kind of logic that go with baggy pants: it’s not really that good-looking, but it’s very comfortable. And seeing somebody who displays their comfort openly makes you feel that the person is secure and satisfied with life.
Or having a laundry day.
That’s the part that disturbs me, for some odd reason. The layered look, okay, been there done that looked like an idiot back then too, but somehow the pre-made layered look is just plain weird to me. I don’t pretend this makes any sense.
My kids both have several fake-layered shirts. I just grin and bear it, and count my grey hairs. For truly I grow old.
I don’t mind it, it’s the shorts over sweatpants that you see some runners wearing that makes me raise an eyebrow to. Weird.
Naw. It’s so you can still have pockets.
I am ashamed to say that I giggled at the irony of “Kurt Cobain” and “secure and satisfied with life” being used in the same paragraph.
Despite that, I agree with you, 100%. There is an appeal to the look because it appears comfortable, and always has. I’m by no means prudish when critiquing someone’s dress, but I still find the t-shirt over the long sleeves classier, more practical and more comfortable looking than the young ladies at the mall with their thongs sticking out from behind their hip huggers.
I do it with polo shirts too, as even sven says.