Collars
One hundred years ago, most shirts did not have an attached collar as they do today. The collars were separate, attached to the shirt with two shirt studs – one at the front, underneath where the neck-wear was tied, and another at the back, which would be hidden by one’s jacket.
This allowed for collars to be very heavily starched, to a level of cardboard-like stiffness. This also had the advantage of making sure that the collars were not damaged when the shirt was washed as the collars were removed. This was especially important for the wing collar, as being beaten and knocked, whether by hand or by machine, would bend the wing and make the collar shabbier. The largest disadvantage was that the collars were hard to clean, and indeed, were often just thrown away and new collars bought.
Today, there are not many who wear detachable collars. The shirts are uncommon, as are the collars, and most people don’t notice the difference, or care enough to pay the additional cost of the shirts, collars, and laundering of the collars.
A little over one month ago, on the 9th May, 2009, my wife, Emmie, was at an outdoor flea market, as she often is on a Saturday. A leather box drew her attention, and she went straight to it.
She opened it up, and lo and behold, it was full of collars. They were packed badly and several of the collars were warped a little, but they can be repaired, and the others were in perfect condition! She snapped it up straight away, without even thinking of the collar size. Once she got home I checked, and all the collars were labelled as a size 40 – I assumed this was 40cm (15.7″), which is also perfect for me, as I can wear both 15.5″ and 16″ collar shirts. I checked the shirts around my neck to be sure, and as I thought, they were perfect!
There were nine collars – four normal wing collars, two less-common wing collars, a very narrow burlington collar, a long-tipped collar, and a double round collar. New, without the box, these would be worth around £100, and Emmie bought the box and collars for less than £20!
Of course, the collars also require a collarless shirt, and studs to hold them in place. neither of which I had when Emmie bought them for me. However, I have made some progress regarding both studs and shirts, and plan to write about them soon.
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Well, I guess I’m going to have to move to Sweden if these last two posts are any indication of the second-hand shopping there.
There are several places that sell collars and shirts, but most of them are more of the costume- than clothing-variety. The most authentic ones I’ve found online are from vintageshirt.co.uk who also sell shirts and accessories. Be warned though, most of their collars, and yours as well, are hard collars and will need specialist laundering by someone with a proper collar press (they recommend Barker in the UK). Luckily, they also offer several semi-stiff collars that can be washed at home.
Very, very nice box. Those are even harder to find than the collars.
I’ve managed to find so many fantastic second-hand things in Sweden. The only thing that’s missing is suits, really. Or, well, there are many suits in second-hand shops in Sweden, but they are all from the seventies and eighties, which are not clothes I personally am interested in.
I contacted the vintage shirt company a while ago, and asked for a sample of the basic “sh200 Collarless white poplin tunic shirt”, as although I will eventually get collarless pleated and boiled front shirts, it’s not what I should start with. Unfortunately, this is one of the only shirts they don’t actually make themselves, but I was sent a cutting of a shirt of a very similar quality poplin, and they seem to be of very high quality. When I next buy some shirts, I will probably get some vintage shirt shirts.
When I do buy some vintage shirts, I will most likely purchase some of their washable collars (including soft seperate collars with stiffeners) for regular us, and keep my old collars for special occasions – then I can justify the cost of laundering them in the UK.
A website I visit (The Fedora Lounge) had a discussion recently about detachable spearpoint collars – somebody from the vintage shirt company read the thread, and they are going to start selling them. They asked whether people would prefer proper starched collars or machine-washable, and the general consensus was for the machine washable variety, especially as laundering stiff collars is much harder outside of the UK.