Shirt vs. IWB print

I carry a Ruger P345 in a Kirkpatrick IWB.
I don't know what long sleeves have to do with printing, but I usually wear a
Hawaiin shirt in the summer. Any shirt that has a " busy" pattern will do.
In the winter I wear Polo pull overs, that are dark, or have plaid patterns.
In between seasons I'll wear canvass duck, or a plaid chamois shirt.

Dark colors work better than light colors.

Material that's a little stiff works better than thinner, softer, or more flowing material.

Stripes tend to accentuate the lump, while plaids and prints tend to hide it.

A shirt that is too tight will always print, while one that is too loose looks sloppy and wrong in most situations. The trick is to find something that's just loose enough.

pax

I like the WalMart after season hunting camo t-shirt sales, XXL and the pattern hides any possible print. The hunting patterns are not military looking, and the shirts are usually dirt cheap on clearance.

Dark colors with a strong "interrupting" pattern works well. Light colors with no pattern "print" the worst. I have found that a "herringbone" texture also causes "print" to stand out (no idea why but it does).

I know several folks who wear a pager or cell phone on the belt in front of their holster to "legitimize" any bump there. I use an external carrier for a Palm TX for the same reason some times.

Size matters. If it's big enough, color doesn't matter. I carry all the time in my paper thin Columbia nylon fishing shirt. In yellow.

are these shirts as tacky as i'm imagining?

My wife hates my Hawaiian style shirts!

I happened to stumble across a good sale on IZOD Polo shirts at JC Penney's one weekend. Bought a few different shirts. They all conceal quite fantastically.

I also conceal in slightly loose fitting t-shirts. My girlfriend still has to ask me if I am concealing or not. I just told her "If I am sleeping, swimming or in the shower... no" I think she got it. She still feels for it sometimes to see if it is there... (not while in public of course) lol

She is still pretty shocked that she cannot see it even though it is a, in her own words, "big ol' gun" (Full size 1911...)

My fiance has a totally unintentional habit of putting her hand on my waist, DIRECTLY above my pistol, so there is no shirt on earth which could defeat that kind of printing. However, nobody pays any attention to anyone else anymore, so I have never to my knowledge been "made".

I like polo shirts, I find they do pretty well at concealing. The right holster works wonders as well, some don't feel to me like they trap the grip in tight enough to my body, so an otherwise excellent carry pistol might not work out.

I use the heavy T-shirts I got at Sam's Club. They work well if you buy them at least one size too big. The Polo type shirts from Lands End work well too because I find them to be just a little bigger than the normal ones you buy locally. They are longer too. The typical Hawaiian shirts work, as long as you don't pick something off the top shelf at the grocery store. I also use the all cotton fishing shirts you get at Academy. The synthetic mix ones don't work as well. Just buy them one size too big, as usual.
You will find, as you carry longer, that most people don't even notice. Most of the people who will notice right off are the ones carrying too. I sat in a restaurant in Houston next to a table with 8 Houston police officers, with my .45 1911 under a dark blue Polo, and no one noticed a thing. That same day I went into a pistol shop and told the guy I had 2 pistols I wanted work done on. Obviously I had one in my hand, but he gave me that look like I couldn't count, until I pulled the other one out from under my shirt I had in a belt holster. His next question was if I was an undercover cop or something. I politely told him NO and went about my business.

I was walking around Wallyworld before CCW here in New MExico once. I had pulled the larger Polo I was wearing over the top of my Milt Sparks thumb break holster that had my Springfiled Champion in it to go in the store since I was on the motorcycle and couldn't lock the gun in anything on the bike. I usually don't carry in Wally since it is a legal grey area here in NM since it is technically unlawful, but not posted correctly so like I said a grey area.

I was in the store for about 15 minutes when I noticed my shirt had pulled up over the top of the grip and i was walking around open carry....in wal mart! Well, no one had noticed or at least no one said anything. I walked around a corner and recovered it and made my purchases, then my haste exit.

The point being, no employees said anything nor did any customers....so either no body noticed or cared ot everyone thought I may be LEO.