Crop Tops

Cropped Tops - high waistline, exposing the belly.

Crop tops can be the enemy of the middle aged.  Yes, this is because a crop top shows off the stomach and as people hit middle age it is more challenging to keep an attractive stomach to put on display.  Hey, don't get mad at us for stating the obvious.  The truth is that crop tops look better on fit people.  That is just reality.

Don't be jealous of my abs.

Cropping refers to removing unwanted areas of something.  In the case of crop tops, it is the removal of fabric that would have added length to the shirt.  A top is clothing that covers at least the chest, but which usually covers most of the upper human body between the neck and the waistline.  The bottom of tops can be as short as mid-torso, or as long as mid-thigh.

A crop top (also cropped top, belly shirt, half shirt, midriff shirt, midriff top, tummy top, short shirt, and cutoff shirt) is a type of shirt.  The lower part of which is high enough to expose the waist, navel or some of the midriff (some of the wearers belly).  The cropping of a top in this manner is generally limited to female garments but not always. 

Crop tops are not only casual shirts.  They can also be made as sweaters such as turtlenecks and other types.

Men will occassionally were a half shirt as well.  It was actually rather popular among men in the 1970's & 1980's.  This kind of shirt is also worn by body builders and other athletes.  It can by a type of fitness fashion.  On some men with rather large beer bellies their shirts may appear to be a crop top, but that may not have been the original intention.  Possibly they gained so much weight it turned their regular t-shirt into a crop top by accident.

In the 1980s, cutoff crop tops became more common as part of the aerobic craze and as a result of the popularity of the movie Flashdance. Singer Madonna wore a mesh crop top in her video for the song Lucky Star. It became common for women to crop sections of workout wear, such as sleeves, collars, and the hem of the shirt to create a loose-fitting top which was often worn over a body suit or tank top.

By the mid-1990s, the crop top took on the form of the babydoll shirt, a cropped, tight-fitting T-shirt which often featured graphic logos. Long-sleeved crop tops and even crop turtleneck tops also became fashionable for the first time, popularized by such public figures as country singer Shania Twain. By the late 1990s, crop tops had become so mainstream that many schools expressly banned garments that expose the midriff in their dress code.

Bikinis and sports bras are generally not regarded as crop tops.

Is a tube top a type of crop top?

Are sports bras a type of crop top?

Learn about different types of shirts.

You may want to also learn about cropped pants.

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How the Crop Top Is Worn

Because the crop top ends above the natural waist, the pairing below it does most of the balancing. High-waisted trousers, jeans and skirts meet the hem or leave only a narrow band of midriff, which is the proportion most everyday versions rely on. Longer cropped sweaters and turtleneck styles work the same way in colder weather, keeping the shortened line while covering arms and neck. Layering changes the register again: a loose cutoff top worn over a tank or bodysuit reads as sport and dance wear, the direct descendant of the 1980s aerobics look.

The style is not limited to one gender or one decade. Men wore half shirts in the 1970s and 1980s, and athletes and bodybuilders still train in them. What recurs in every cycle is the same simple alteration — a familiar top, shortened — applied to whatever shirt, sweater or workout garment the moment favors.