Lately I’ve seen an explosion of half-tucked button-up shirts. How are you aware what facet to tuck in, and what do you do concerning the again? More broadly, no matter occurred to the French tuck, entrance tuck or full tuck? Does one tuck scream “Midtown office” and one other “carefree at the playground”? When do you embrace every type? — Danielle, the Bronx

So some ways to tuck, so onerous to determine which one is correct! After all, tucking your shirt neatly into your waistband (or not) isn’t merely nearly creating a silhouette. It’s a signifier that comprises multitudes. Nowadays, you want to suppose earlier than you tuck.

Once upon a time, that was not true. Once upon a time, there was however one query: To tuck or not to tuck? Tucking in a single’s shirt (for any gender and at any age) was seen as a marker of fine manners, a signal of institutional and self-respect and the default gown code whether or not in Congress or center faculty. How many people grew up endlessly being informed by our dad and mom to “tuck in your shirt”?

Untucking then grew to become the apparent corollary, an act of rebel and a refusal to conform — which is a completely different type of conformity, however let’s go away that one for the second. Untucking was comfy, and relaxed. Untucking was cool. Untucking stated “off-duty,” or “too distracted by big thoughts to worry about the little stuff.” It additionally stated, to some, “sloppy.”

Still, tucking was uncool. Tucking was stiff and uptight. But tucking was additionally skilled, which led to the creation of meant-to-be-untucked shirts, the sorts with straight, tailor-made hems that claimed to give everybody the very best of each worlds. Not to point out the modern center floor of the half-tuck, or the French tuck.

Then got here the pandemic, and the rise of consolation dressing. Since then it’s been a tucking minefield. You virtually want an encyclopedia for tucking protocol.

The French tuck, a go-to of Tan France on “Queer Eye” — who made it so standard that Brie Larson ended up teaching Oprah Winfrey how to French tuck, and that the method grew to become the topic of a MasterClass tutorial — entails tucking within the entrance of a shirt, however letting the again billow out like a cape. The MasterClass of us name this “the best of both worlds.”

The half-tuck, then again, entails tucking in a single facet of the shirt, whereas the opposite facet stays free. According to Kate Young, a stylist who works with Selena Gomez and Michelle Williams, amongst others, “the half-tuck comes from the oversize men’s shirting trend.”

“Because of the volume of these types of shirts,” she stated, “it makes sense to tuck, but not too much, or you will look like a marshmallow on top.”

However, she added: “This is not an office look unless you work in a creative field or if you’re going for that super preppy, ‘I’m so rich it doesn’t matter that I’m a slob’ look. For this you want the shirt to be a mess (wrinkles, paint splatters, tatters) and your khakis or Nantucket reds to look like you’ve been wearing them since senior year.” It is finest worn, she stated, “while drinking a mint julep out of a silver cup.”

On the opposite hand, she stated, “if you want to look like a ’90s supermodel or European tourist,” then go for a extra fitted shirt and tuck it absolutely into a pair of straight leg denims paired with loafers.

If all of this appears an excessive amount of, nonetheless, there may be one other manner. You may keep away from the difficulty fully by eschewing tucking in favor of tying: Undo the underside few buttons and easily knot the shirttails at your waist. But that takes us into Hyannis Port territory, and that’s a story for one more day.

Your Style Questions, Answered

Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will reply a reader’s fashion-related query, which you’ll be able to ship to her anytime by way of email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.