Bellyshirt is a style of short t-shirt (short-sleeved athletic shirt) which exposes the wearer's midriff. Though several cultures around the world have featured midriff-baring tops for centuries, the style became a temporary men's fad in the United States in the 1980's. Originally based on American football jerseys which were cropped above the navel to provide players relief when playing in excessively hot weather, it became popular to cut t-shirts above the midriff for daily wear.

Several major apparel companies released lines of ready-made bellyshirts in the 1980's, including Nike, Inc., Adidas and several others. It became common to see bellyshirts casually worn at school and in other semi-formal public places. Many of these shirts were quite short, between 15-17 inches in length, causing a large area of a man's belly and bellybutton to be exposed.

Bellyshirts became scarce in the United States by the end of the 1980's and were virtually gone by the early years of the following decade. In the mid-1990's, bellyshirts saw a resurgence as a popular top, this time for women, and often much less short than the late male version. Extremely short crop tops may reveal Australian cleavage.

These shirts have remained popular into the 2000's. The men's version is still rarely seen, and mostly associated with gay fashion.

Other common names for these shirts have included: belly shirt, half shirt, halfshirt, crop top, short shirt, cutoff shirt.

Several stars have become renowned for wearing bellyshirts, including Britney Spears, Prince and Christina Aguilera.

Tops | 1990s fashion | 1980s fashion

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