The Year-Round Go-To Top: Baby Tees and Where They Originated

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If you are unfamiliar with the term, “baby tees”, it is simply a cropped, form-fitted t-shirt. It is not an actual baby t-shirt, but it gets this name because of its shrunken down appearance of a regular t-shirt. Baby tees have grown popular through the most recent years for its comfortability, versatility, and classic yet innocent look. 

Baby tees originated from Linda Meltzer in the ‘90s. Ever since then, the trend of baby tees has not come to an end. The style has been worn by stars like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Drew Barrymore for the YM magazine cover, featured in shows and movies like Friends and Clueless, and seen in many other magazine photoshoots. 

Linda Meltzer brought us baby tees from both of her companies, Tease Tee’s and Pretties. As a stylist for movies and music videos, she felt as though something in the fashion industry was missing. She was a big fan of vintage tees from thrift stores and French-cut tees from the ‘70s. She also found inspiration in the punk world from not only her boyfriend, but from punk rock girls, specifically Debbie Harry. 

She could never find shirts like these anywhere, so she took matters into her own hands and made a baby tee with the same comfortable fabric that French-cut tees were made from. Hence the term, “baby tees”, the delicate, baby ribbed fabric was used for baby clothes.

In 1993, most designers used jersey-knit, a cheaper fabric that was not as soft as the fabric Meltzer envisioned for her ideal baby tee. She found a source in Georgia that was able to supply the material she wanted and made the shirts locally in LA. 

As soon as the tees were produced, she headed to Fred Segal where she once worked and immediately a buyer in the store noticed the shirt she was wearing and wanted one in every color. 

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Meltzer gave her brand the name Tease Tee’s on her way home from Fred Segal’s. From then on, this opened many doors for Meltzer. Her tees were then pulled by stylists to be featured on Friends and for the music video “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” by Selena. 

This tee was disruptive to the typical ‘90s grunge style of baggier clothing. It got so big that knockoffs were being created as big companies took her ideas. One being the movie Clueless. 

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“Clueless is actually a lot of knockoffs,” says Meltzer. “That’s not my actual heart shirt. I was the victim of an inside job knockoff.” 

According to Meltzer, her sales rep sold her shirts with a different brand name claiming that Tease Tee’s went out of business when it didn’t. 

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Meltzer was also commissioned for a business venture with supermodels Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer, and Elle MacPherson to make shirts for Fashion Cafe, an ill-fated, themed restaurant. She even created a shrunken cami with a built-in bralette worn by Reese Witherspoon that also became popular.  

In 2001, Meltzer shut down Tease Tee’s. She later returned in 2016 with a new brand called Pretties, a boutique in Venice Beach, California that focused on structured lingerie and a few baby tees. 

Meltzer believes her Tease Tee’s brand would have been a bigger success if her sales rep did not create any issues. However, she still created an impact on the fashion world. Juicy Couture brought the momentum back in the early 2000s from their graphic tees, especially Britney’s iconic “Dump Him” shirt after her breakup with Justin Timberlake.

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Current baby tee enthusiasts are Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Hailey Bieber that wear these looks while out and about.

Meltzer continues on with her iconic trend-setting baby tees and plans to bring back popular styles from the past like the star tee and the lime green tee worn by Rachel Green (as shown above). She is excited to own a brand and connect with customers. Be on the lookout for new styles. 

The baby tee truly never went away. Nowadays, you do not have to go to the children’s section for a fitted, smaller tee (unless you want to), you can easily find one at any retailer such as Brandy Melville or Zara for instance. You can also find some vintage baby tees off of Depop or eBay.