The Best Slimming Undershirt To Wear On Your Wedding Day

A rather detailed email exchange with a reader regarding which shaping undershirt would be most practical to wear on his upcoming wedding day.

I am getting married at the end of the month. I have always been a big fan of equmen, and was planning on picking up an extra white undershirt for big day, but I though i would ask you first: Any suggestions for looking my best while being comfortable?

I am going to try to stop somewhere to give spanx for men a chance, but if memory serves they crushed my ribs which is why i dont own one already….

Thank you in advance for your help!!!

-Ron

Equmen Versus Other Slimming Undershirts

Heya Ron,

Good to hear from you buddy and thanks for stopping by my site. Congrats on the upcoming nuptials!

Definitely understand your logic behind wearing a shaper on your special day — that extra compression, slimming, and smoothing can boost your confidence and help your tuxedo (or suit) to drape a little better as well. 

You know, I’ve always thought that tuxedo shops and stores like the Men’s Wearhouse should offer a line of shaping undershirts for this very reason — but I’ve never seen any at those stores. Eeird huh?

Equmen is great brand, and they make a really good line of products. I have been a big fan of their compression/slimming undershirts and am never disappointed with their slimming and shaping effects. You can’t go wrong with them really.

That said, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you about some other options you can consider, right?

Now equmen has an athletic shirt design, as does the Spanx for Men Zoned Performance. Out of the two, I think you’re equally well served with either. Meaning, if you have an Equmen, I wouldn’t recommend going out and buying a zoned performance. 

spanx-for-men-zoned-performance-undershirt-compared-to-equmen
Equmen vs Spanx for Men Zoned Performance

But, there are also other more “traditional” looking slimming undershirt shapers whereas they look more like standard undershirts, but they offer slimming and shaping.

The two most talked about on my website are the Spanx for Men cotton compression & cotton comfort lines, and the various compression undershirt items from Underworks.  Personally speaking, I’ll sport one of these tank shapers every once in a while when I’m going out if I’m wearing a more slender cut outer shirt.

The two different Spanx lines offer different amounts of control, priced at around $58. Underworks has something similar, but they offer 4 levels of compression from “ultra light” to “extreme series” and they are priced from $17 – $35. 

There are many other slimming undershirt brands available too.

I’ve tried both of the brands above and I’ve been very pleased with their performance. If I were to make a recommendation, I’d suggest you pick one from each brand and give them a whirl. I really think you’ll be pleased with both.

Hope the above information helps. 

Again congrats on getting married and just remember the two words that’ll keep everything going smoothly in your marriage over the long haul: “yes dear” — embrace the crazy buddy, it’s just about to begin (:

Some Additional Questions

Ron writes me back…

So it turns out i only have black and grey undershirts, which is why i thought i would ask you what to look for in a new one.

Do the Spanx roll up at the bottom less than the Equmen? does the rolling just mean I’m in the wrong size?

I really like tank tops, especially in compression shirts, mostly because most manufacturers have a wildly distorted body type for arms vs body size (drives me nuts looking at an Under Armour ad with short sleeves to a football players elbows, but in my medium or large, i guess not enough muscle to hold them down? they fly up into my armpits, and while I’m not roided, my arms aren’t tiny either)

i digressed: my concern with tank tops especially on my wedding day, is sweat. i always figure an extra layer, even if it is wicking, will serve me better than nothing at all… i am more concerned that i will be wearing this garment with a dress shirt suit and tie (and vest) for 12 plus hours, so comfort level and…for lack of a non made up word, stay-puttedness, are critical.

i have worn my Equmen to many events and other than always needing to roll it back down when i hit the head (the timing of the roll getting too bulky and high and bathroom breaks has been amazingly close) i love the feeling.

i was looking through your reviews and I think the guy at Saks or Neimens might have given me the wrong shirt to try on, I asked for the Spanx for men, but it had a definitive slimming section (like the garment you reviewed that was 20+ years on the market) and that stretchy compression section came up to my ribs, and HURT.

None of the Spanx look like that. I am lucky enough to work my night job in a mall with Neimans, Saks, and Lord and Taylor, and my day job is right down the road from Nordstroms, so I will make the rounds and try stuff on.

Thank you for your time and advice (and keeping up a website about guys undergarments, people still think I’m nuts when I return itchy undershirts, or ones with holes in back of the collars because the tags could not be removed without disturbing the seam and destroying the garment)

My fiancé and I already live together with our son, and your advice is sagely, though most think it only a joke or tease.

Any further advice would be wonderful.

The Dreaded Roll-Up

Heya Ron,

The Spanx cotton control and cotton comfort undershirts do not roll-up like the Equmen and Spanx athletic cut counter parts.

I’m not saying they don’t roll up at all, because that partially has to do with your underwear and whether or not you tuck your compression undershirt into your underwear, or if you wear it on the outside. The looser your underwear, the more likely the undershirt will roll up.

Of course, the cotton control and cotton compression will be less likely to roll-up than the slimmer designs of the athletic slimming undershirts regardless. It has nothing to do with proper sizing really, but more about the cut of the shirts and your body frame.

These narrowly cut athletic shaping undershirts have to be pulled down around the hips, so depending on your waist-to-hip shape, the roll-a-bility factor can be mild, moderate or bad. On me, I get the dreaded bottom roll-up regularly on the athletic-cut shapers (Zoned Performance and Equmen) but not much on the others. To minimize the roll-up, I’ll tuck the bottom of the shapers into my underwear, though I don’t do that with normal undershirts.

As far as sweat control, I would assume your main goal is minimizing sweat-through. If you tend to sweat in the underarm area moreso than your body, than you definitely either want to sport a full shaping undershirt, or wear a tank and use underarm pads.

If you don’t sweat too much in the underarm area, than go with a tank because you will definitely stay a bit cooler than wearing a full undershirt.

I’m not sure exactly which item the guy at Saks or Neimens had you try on. I looked on both websites and I don’t see any item that sounds like you’re describing with mid-section compression (like the no-longer made Ript Fusion, Manshape, and one other), but it’s possible the physical store is carrying something different than what they have available online.

So, the recommendations are:

  1. Go with a non athletic-cut shaping undershirt for your wedding day
  2. Wear a tank if you don’t sweat too much in the underarm. Go full undershirt otherwise
  3. To minimize roll-up, either tuck your slimming undershirt into your underwear (boxer briefs are pretty good here), or do some make-shift stay-puttedness steps by using shirt stays, strong double-sided tape, velcro, or some other type of mechanism to fasten your undershirt to the outside of your underwear.
manshape-support-tank_s
Manshape slimming tank

As for the undershirt advice — well buddy, that’s what I’m here for.

As for the relationship advice — that was definitely in jest. Hell, one of these days maybe I’ll take my own advice — but probably not (:

Hope you have an amazing wedding day Ron. My best to your soon to be wife and your son.

Feel svelte my friend.

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