I've actually gone to merino wool...the Icebreaker 140-weight t-shirts are comfortable, breathable, and naturally anti-odor. They also dry reasonably quickly.

I keep an eye out and pick them up on sale.

Scott - do you use them year-round?

"In hot, humid weather none of them are very comfortable in my experience. I've used ExOfficio, Champion, Carhartt, and North Face."

Having worn the various POLYESTER T-shirts, as a bottom layer for outdoor usage, as colored crew neck shirts, I also find them rather CLAMMY and WARM as the temperature increases, and would not consider these for dressier wear. Mainly I have purchased these at REI, but may have gotten some at LL Bean.

What someone needs to make, to go beneath dress shirts for travel, maybe even just regular daily wear, would be a polyester MESH undershirt, particularly with a V-neck collar, since the use of ties tends to be so variable these days. For years I have owned ONLY V-necks for this purpose, but in all cotton, of course.

The desired fabric for travel would be the lightweight polyester MESH fabric used for my Performance Bike undershirts, that I use for cool and moderate weather cycling. I have several of these, crew neck, and essentially sleeveless. I just weighed one: 2.8 oz., versus about 6.3 oz. for the cotton V-neck just mentioned. With a V-neck, and sleeves, these would likely weight HALF of a cotton undershirt, should breath, and would for a typical trip where three are carried save about 11 oz. in the total packing weight. One downside would be that the material seems to "pill."

Yes, I'd pay $25 for one, since a set of four, relative to the amount of traveling I get to do, would last years to, alas, decades. Perhaps there is someone at Magellans or Travelsmith reading this thread about...threads.

Precisely! +1

The Superfine Merino wool from Icebreaker, usually black in color is perfect for traveling any month, to anywhere. The stink is kept to a bare minimum, the super lightweight fabric breaths incredibly well, insulates against the chill that comes on quickly when traveling.

I've got tons of Icebreaker in the closet, mainly for climbing and mountaineering, usually the heavier 260 weight versions like the Tech Zip T.

Traveling... the 14o Superweight in Black. Look for 'em on sale occasionally at www.backcountry.com

<I've actually gone to merino wool...the Icebreaker 140-weight t-shirts are comfortable, breathable, and naturally anti-odor. They also dry reasonably quickly.

I keep an eye out and pick them up on sale.>

Brad - yep...and in fact have worn them to the gym to workout.

At the extreme, check this guy out...he lives in an RV in Texas when not traveling, and only owns 4 shirts...all of them from Icebreaker.
http://tynan.net/

I came here to praise Icebreaker, and see that I've been beaten to it--twice!

I love the Icebreaker t-shirts. They are a good undershirt for the day, I wear it to the gym at night, wash it in a zip-lock baggy before bed, and it's dry by morning.

Best t-shirts I've had. Also the priciest :-( I've actually had dreams where I find them at Costco for $19.99 and buy a stack of them. Oh, if only dreams came true.

Alan, is absolutely right about the V-neck, I think. I love V-necks for the same reason. Unfortunately, my champion undershirts are not available as V-necks and the neckline is rather high on them which I don't like so much.

I usually don't wear an undershirt at all, weather permitting. Wool undershirts (I only have one or two from Medima) would be way too warm. The idea of undershirts is to provide additional warmth in the winter and to prevent sweat from showing through in the summer. I am not sure how well a mesh material would fare in both accounts but I like the idea of weight and drying time reduction.

What I do like is very fine mercerized cotton undershirts in V-neck or with two or three buttons (short sleeve henley style). The mercerized cotton is hard to find in the US. European brands like Schiesser, Calida, Zimmerli, Grigio Perla, Hom, Cerruti and LIsanza usually offer them. Zimmerli and Grigio Perla are clearly very high-end. Lisanza will do the trick and in an outlet store I can find the shirts for around $30 each. They are good for years. I have two Cerruti undershirts of mercerized cotton (made at the time by German Schiesser) that I bought 24 years ago!!! I wear them a lot and have washed them hundred of times. They are the best undershirts I ever bought. And I still wear them and still get compliments for them. When I tell the person that this undershirt is 24 years old, they think I am nuts.

As a side not, they are, I believe, the exact same model Don Johnson is wearing in Miami Vice. :)

Till

Any preferences as to particularly warm (and more notably, humid) base layer? I've heard only good of Icebreaker, but most commentary seems along the lines of either cold, warm going to cold, or warm/nonhumid. Does anyone have particular experience with it in environments such as Southeast Asia or Central America (or really, for that matter, any humid, warm environment)?

From a textile technology standpoint you want stuff that wicks moisture away and keeps the layer above it away from the skin so it doesn't cling. You also want it to be as light and aerated as possible. In this sense, I would go with a classic undershirt (wifebeater) cut in a mesh material possibly made of cooldry fibers. In Italy and Latin America you can see the gents wear mesh undershirts under their white cotton shirts. Linen is also a good material because of the loose weave and the rough structure. Silk and cotton are not so good, smoother and hold lots of water, also not as aerated generally.