I have already written an article on how to dress for the milonga, including practical tips and video tutorials, the main idea being elegance and style, e.g. how to tuck your shirt in your trousers, how to turn up the sleeves of your shirt, the proper belt colour, etc.
Nevertheless I skipped an important topic.
Should we wear an undershirt or T-shirt under our shirt at the milonga or not?
According to etiquette there is no strict rule for that. Personally, I do not like wearing T-shirts or undershirts under a dress shirt. As useful as it may be, absorbing your sweat, it is really annoying that the lines of the undershirt or the neckline of the T-shirt can be seen through your shirt. Maybe a deep-cut V-neck tight T-shirt could be a good solution, but that makes me feel very hot while dancing. Of course there are some shirt + undershirt or shirt + T-shirt combinations that look okay, however these are quite rare.
T-shirt, undershirt, sweating
In the pictures below you can see some of the problems. The picture in the middle shows a gentleman who does not wear anything under his shirt, so you can see some sweat stains. Well, during a milonga it can get much worse than just a stain, in many cases sweat even starts dripping.
The situation is a bit better in Buenos Aires. In the „city of good air” while dancing a tanda with someone you would spend the first minute of each song chatting. All the dancers are standing on the dance floor conversing so loudly that it is impossible to hear the music. These extra minutes of „rest” during those four songs help you cool down a bit, so you sweat less. Anyway, let’s face it, you can often see people with soaked shirts in milongas, no matter if you are in Budapest or Buenos Aires.
So, what could be the solution? There are not so many choices:
- 1. I dance much less.
- I wear an undershirt / T-shirt under my shirt but it shows through or makes me feel very hot.
- I take 2, 3, 4 or more shirts to the milonga and I change every now and then.
Lespirant – the undershirt revolution!
I came across the products of Lespirant by chance when I was invited to a photo session. This garment called L-Cut is made from a special material and can be worn under your shirt. It absorbs sweat, it doesn’t show through your shirt and you feel less hot than in a deep-cut V-neck tight T-shirt. At first I found it a bit strange, but I realised very quickly how useful it is. So, let’s see some of the photos:
In the first picture you can see the usual undershirt and T-shirt, in the second one wearing an L-cut with the shirt undone, while in the third one the normal use of the L-cut.
At first sight the photos reminded me of a detergent commercial. :)
All joking aside, I really liked this garment because of its unique shape and the quality of the material.
You may have noticed on these pictures that the L-Cut comes in skin tone colors to remain invisible even under a thin white shirt. There are 3 skin tones, and you can even test which one is best for you by printing this PDF and placing it under your white shirt to check which skin tone is invisible for you.
Here are some extra details:
Luckily I got two L-cuts as a present during the photo shoot and I couldn’t wait to test them under extreme circumstances.
The biggest test took place at the amazing Tango festival Tango Casino in Cluj-Napoca. Huge crowd, extremely high humidity. In spite of the extreme conditions the L-Cut could cope with the sweating for quite long. I had to change much later than usually. After one or two hours I went into the changing room to change for my second L-Cut but I kept the same dress shirt on. A few hours later back to the changing room to put on the first one which had dried in the meantime. Due to its special material it does not get stinky from sweat, that happens only after using it several times in a row.
There is another reason to wear undershirts. and it’s too protect your expensive dress shirts from yellow sweat stains that form over time in the armpit area and back, if you don’t use an undershirt. Even if you don’t sweat, the millions of dead skin cells you lose everyday will still turn your white or light color dress shirt yellow eventually. But the L-Cut can protect your favorite dress shirts without having the drawbacks of wearing an undershirt.
So the L-Cut is useful, not just for tango, but actually anytime you wear a dress shirt in or out of the office.
I have to admit that I was amazed by the results. I think this product is going to revolutionize the world of clothing / people’s habits of what to wear under their shirt.
I got used to wearing it regularly, so I already lost one of them at a milonga in the changing room. Fortunately at a regular milonga one is enough for the whole night. It is of excellent quality, doesn’t take up much space and it’s easy to wash. I feel much more relaxed because I don’t have to worry whether my undershirt or T-shirt shows through my shirt or not.
Finally, here comes a quick interview with Laurent where he explains how he came up with the idea of this special „undershirt”. We recorded it after a Saturday night’s milonga at 2 am. We danced a lot that night, that’s why you can see many wrinkles on my shirt but thanks to the Lespirant product there are no sweat stains on any of us. Although you cannot see it, we were both wearing an L-Cut.
L-Cuts can be purchased in the webshop of Lespirant.
I have to say that I found Laurent’s idea fantastic and I really like L-Cuts. When I told him that I wanted to write an article on this, he was so pleased that he made a special offer to the readers of my blog.
If you buy one L-Cut, you will get a discount from the online price:
1 piece for 23 euros (instead of 35)
The voucher code / promo code is „AMORBUDAPEST”. The offer is valid till 12 July 2018.