The Teeny, Tiny Tee Is Back (Again)

April Daniels Hussar

Lauren Caruso had never really bought into the idea of dressing for one’s body type. “It’s incredibly limiting,” she said, adding that the concept is really just code for wanting “to look thinner or taller or attempt to reinforce other Eurocentric beauty standards.” But as a 36-year-old who says she is 5 feet 2 inches tall “if I stretch,” she makes one exception: baby tees.

Caruso, a freelance writer and brand consultant in Los Angeles, finds the shirt style ideal for her petite frame. “The trend is practically tailor-made for me,” she said. “Most baby tees hit me just near my belly button, which gives me more flexibility to wear it with something high-waisted.” In September, actress Jemima Kirke took to Instagram to share her “important T-shirt resource,” as she announced in the caption: Swedish children’s brand Mini Rodini. In the 45-second reel, Kirke slips into a snug shirt featuring a cartoon man hoisting cartoon weights. The shirt size? 9 to 11 years. Her age? 39.

Baby tees — those ultra-fitted, sometimes cap-sleeved, sometimes cropped shirts — are back. And though women like Caruso or Kirke (not to mention crop-top aficionados like Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid) may be slender enough to wear an actual child’s shirt, there now exist many more options to span generations and body types.

Colleen Hill, senior curator of costume and accessories at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said the return of the baby tee was part of a broader revival of ’90s and Y2K fashion trends. “It’s quite versatile, and it can be very flattering,” Hill said of the shirt. “You can wear it in a really casual context or you can wear it with a silk skirt, for example, and dress it up a little bit, very much like we saw 30 or so years ago.”

The baby tee also makes for a great layering piece in the colder months under sweaters or, for a throwback look, under a strappy slip dress. Caruso found the first baby tee of her adult life at a thrift store, not realizing it was a child’s size until she took it home and noticed the Carter’s tag. “I really just liked the cut of it,” she said. “It was perfectly cropped, and it had kind of a cap sleeve shoulder.” Other so-called baby tees in her wardrobe were made for adults, and she typically pairs them with leather bombers and loose jeans or leather culottes and a blazer.

Meaghan Elliott, 22, a recent graphic design graduate who lives in Philadelphia, likes to “pick up a child size shirt instead of the woman’s cut,” she said. One of her favorite recent finds is a child’s woodblock print T-shirt she found in Rhode Island featuring the Flying Horse Carousel. Elliott said she used to style her baby tees “strictly going for the tiny top big pants look,” but she recently branched out into pairing them with a lower rise, boot-cut jean. “I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch,’” she explained.

“I heard that if you have done the trend once in your lifetime, then if it comes back again, it’s not for you,” said Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, 43, a mother of two, writer and Women’s March organizer living in northern New Jersey. “And I have completely disregarded that rule.” She likes how the short sleeves make her shoulders look “more defined,” she added.

Mecca James-Williams, 31, a stylist and editor of culture and commerce platform Jam, who splits her time between Manhattan and Jamaica, sees the baby tee as a celebration of femininity. She said she found them “classic and chill” while also “sexy and beautiful.” She sources her tees from vintage stores, eBay or brands like Meji Meji and Uniqlo.

Katie Sturino, a body acceptance advocate and founder of body care brand Megababe, who lives in New York City, recalled that the baby tee trend of her high school years wasn’t exactly inclusive. “My friends would buy kids’ clothes and wear them,” Sturino, 43, said. “I could never do that.”

Hill noted a significant difference between the current iteration of the baby tee trend and its ’90s predecessor. “There was a very narrow view of beauty and of fashionable body types” during its first era, she said — but she doesn’t see that now. “I see a lot of embracing of these styles that can look good on anyone. And I don’t think they’re necessarily limited by age or gender or by body type.”

Sturino agreed. “You can go back to a trend,” she said, “without bringing in the old toxic behavior.”