One fateful day over 20 years ago, Tan France was at a fashion show. While this was not a unique occurrence for the fashion expert, what he saw coming down the runway that day definitely was: the front of a shirt tucked tastefully into pants, while the rest of the shirt waved blithely in the wind, a happy-go-lucky flag flying for all those assembled to see.

It’s a style move France has been implementing ever since, but it was only recently introduced to the world on Queer Eye. The adjustment is simple, and it solves one of life’s quintessential problems: How should one tuck in a shirt in a flattering manner, while still maintaining an air of carefree spontaneity — that key bit of joie de vivre, as the French would say?

The tuck works, France says, because it balances your proportions, making your legs look longer and leaner. He recommends doing the tuck with looser-fitting clothes to “keep [the upper body] to the imagination.”

France prescibes this fix throughout Queer Eye’s first season, but it’s left unnamed. Only in Season 2 does it make its official debut as the French tuck. In a 2019 interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, France says that the show’s production team wanted to highlight his signature move, and he found the name in a story online.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds cute. We’ll call it the French tuck — never thinking people would assume that I called it that because I’m Tan France,” he told the newspaper. “I so wish I was that smart! I’m not.”

For Queer Eye “hero” William Mahnken, a French tuck provided comfort while hiding his stomach. For Leonardo Loria Rico, the move helped him achieve a “slick” look. And for Neal Reddy, the French tuck inspired him to brand himself as “the Indian member of Coldplay.”

“You're going to have every straight man around the world doing a French tuck," culture expert Karamo Brown tells France in the second episode of Season 2.

GQ noted that Refinery29 made a video teaching the “one-hand tuck” in 2015. But by introducing the technique to a global audience, France started a movement of French-ers worldwide. Google search results for the term skyrocket every time a new season of the show premieres. Cate Blanchett, Gigi Hadid and Meghan Markle are practitioners of the trend. Even Brie Larson taught Oprah to French tuck thanks to France’s tips.

There has been, of course, inevitable backlash. Naysayers call it “sloppy” and say that it “embodies a faux nonchalance,” while still acknowledging that it “sucks in your gut.” But they have also been forced to acknowledge its notoriety, admitting that its influence has spread beyond fashion runways and into institutions like the English Premier League.

And despite all of France’s other accomplishments — writing a best-selling memoir, co-hosting Next in Fashion, welcoming a new child with his husband — this might be his greatest legacy. Though he never sought this power, it fell upon his shoulders to style the people of the world. He took up the mantle because he couldn’t just stand aside and not take action, perhaps after seeing one too many sloppy, ill-fitting tees. The tuck came to him in a moment of need, and it started a revolution.

Was the world ready for the French tuck, or was the French tuck ready for the world? Perhaps we’ll never know. But finally, there’s a way to style shirts in the spirit of that ancient proverb: Business in the front, party in the back.