The Best Cropped T-Shirts for a Hollywood Heartthrob Summer
12 navel-skimming tees for peak loping-around-LA style.
Before they cannonballed into the menswear mainstream, the best cropped T-shirts were DIY'd at home with a pair of scissors. But the good news is that what started as a trend on TikTok (CropTok, if you will) has made its way to Hollywood's elite and LA's style setters. Global retailers have even taken notice and now the hip-brushing tee is more widely available than ever before.
That it comes at a time when the so-called menswear golden ratio is at its peak is no coincidence. What else would you expect after an era rife with oversized tees? The trend has its extremes, of course, but unlike crop tops, which truly expose the midriff, a cropped tee still retains the classic T-shirt elements—short sleeves, a crewneck, and a relaxed or boxy fit—but just finishes it all off with a higher hemline. This helps the tee work with any sweater, trucker jacket or blazer, because it'll never hang lower than whatever's layering on top of it.
Having realized these added benefits, plenty of brands are truncating their hemlines for you. But before we get into our round-up of the 12 best right now, a quick note on styling: With the tiny top, baggy bottoms movement still going strong, cropped tees pair easily with high-waisted pants, sweatpants, jeans, and yes, those never-ending-pocketed cargos.
Best Cropped T-Shirt Overall:
2M15C CROPPED MID-CENTURY MACHINE REFINED FIT T-SHIRT
Gitta and Peter Plotnicki, partners in life and business, deserve a round of applause—if it weren’t for them, the historic German brand Merz b. Schwanen would be nothing more than, well, historic. Instead, after coming across a 90-year-old henley from the brand at a flea market, the Plotnickis reached out to the Merz family, who gave them the approval to restore its once-great name. Quickly, the Plotnickis tracked down one of the last textile manufacturers originally used by the brand, who blew them away by revealing 32 authentic loopwheelers dating from the 1880s to the 1960s—unused and covered in dust.
- Leon Hedgepeth and Gerald Ortiz / GQ