The new-age nerd shirt could be the best thing that has happened to men’s fashion — or, should we say, those admiring men’s fashion — since Levi’s 501 jeans.
This is why: The sleeve, if worn at prescribed proportions, emphasizes the erogenous zone just above the elbow, where a narrow baseline bursts into the biceps and then the shoulder.
In the best cases, it flashes one of the finest forms of he-cleavage, a subtle demarcation line where the first bulge begins.
When the wearer is particularly well-formed and the shirt well-fitted, the sleeve might strain ever so slightly against the girth of the biceps, triceps and shoulder, as in the opening sequence of “Casino Royale,” featuring a nerd-shirt-wearing Daniel Craig (see photo) in hot pursuit.
If this ode surprises you, consider that in a joint survey by Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health magazines, biceps and shoulders were rated as the muscles on a man that most made the women respondents melt.
Mind you, the sleeves’ charms can be overshadowed — OK, obliterated — by a midsection that pops the buttons on the front placket.
“On the right guy, this shirt is sexy,” said Matthew Edelstein, fashion editor for Details magazine. He cites tanned, toned arms as requirements. A trim torso goes without saying.
“The sleeve should never go to the elbow,” Edelstein added. “It should hit you at the widest point of your biceps.”
To wear it thusly conveys confidence — the kind that might make an observer wonder just what else this guy has up his sleeve.
