Detachable collar

A starched-stiff detachable wing collar from Luke Eyres

A detachable collar, also called a false collar, is a shirt collar made separately from the shirt and fastened to it with collar studs. It may be made of linen, cotton or other materials and can be cleaned, pressed or replaced independently of the shirt. Many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century detachable collars were white and heavily starched to maintain a rigid shape.

Detachable collars became an important part of men's business dress in the nineteenth century. In addition to washable fabric versions, manufacturers developed paper, rubber and celluloid collars, offering alternatives to laundering and starching cloth. Their changing shapes and materials were linked to industrial manufacture, ideals of respectability and debates over masculine appearance and bodily comfort.

History

Man wearing a detachable collar, United States, 1910

Origins and industrial production

Local accounts in Troy, New York, credit Hannah Montague with creating a detachable collar in 1827 by removing the soiled collar from one of her husband's shirts so that it could be washed separately. This account is a local origin story rather than definitive evidence that she invented the first detachable collar. The Reverend Ebenezer Brown, a Troy businessman, is traditionally credited with helping to commercialize the idea. Detachable collars were being advertised in the United States by the 1840s.

Collar and cuff manufacture grew into a major industry in Troy, which became known as the Collar City. Murphy describes large-scale production in the early twentieth century, with annual output reaching hundreds of millions of collars and thousands of workers employed in the city's collar and cuff industry.

The industry developed during a wider expansion in the manufacture and sale of ready-made men's clothing. Historian Rob Schorman notes that ready-made clothing was widely worn by American men by the 1890s, although manufacturers continued to advertise its resemblance to individually tailored garments.

Materials and construction

Linen and cotton

Nineteenth-century detachable collars were commonly made of white cotton or linen, with multiple layers of fabric assembled to give the collar structure. Starching and pressing supplied additional stiffness. Murphy traces changes from two-layer constructions to three-layer collars promoted in the 1860s, four-layer versions after 1870 and increasingly elaborate multilayer models toward the end of the century. Makers had to balance the desired rigidity with the risk of cracking or creasing when a collar was folded into shape.

Detachable cuffs and, in some styles, shirt fronts could likewise be washed and finished separately from the body of a shirt. Such stiffened accessories became less prominent as softer and more comfortable styles gained favor.

Paper collars

Disposable paper collars provided an alternative to fabric collars that required laundering, starching and ironing. The collars formed part of a broader nineteenth-century market for inexpensive, mass-produced dress accessories. In his study of rubber clothing, historian Manuel Charpy describes the unfavorable social associations of inexpensive paper collars in comparison with washable alternatives made from newer materials. These associations varied with the social and commercial contexts in which collars were worn.

Rubber and celluloid

Manufacturers also produced detachable collars and cuffs using vulcanized rubber. From the 1840s, rubber-goods firms in Britain, France and the United States explored clothing applications, including water-resistant articles that could be wiped clean. Charpy situates rubber collars among experiments in materials that promised easier maintenance than traditional starched linen.

By the late nineteenth century, celluloid, an early semi-synthetic material derived from cellulose nitrate, had become another material for collars and cuffs. Such items could be washed without the customary starching process. Susanne and Michael Lorenz identify shirt collars and cuffs among the everyday consumer products manufactured from celluloid from approximately the 1880s onward. Chemist and historian Seth C. Rasmussen places the development of celluloid within the broader nineteenth-century history of semi-synthetic plastics made from nitrated cellulose.

Wearing and maintenance

A pair of collar studs; the longer one, at left, is the front stud.

Fastening the collar

A traditional detachable collar is fixed to a shirt using collar studs. The shirt has a short upright neckband, sometimes called a tunic collar or collar band, with an opening at the back and openings at the front. The collar is first attached at the back; the wearer then puts on the shirt and secures the collar at the front. With a turndown collar, the necktie may be positioned beneath the collar before it is fully fastened. Different collars could therefore be worn with the same shirt.

Laundry and starching

The ability to detach the part of a shirt most visibly affected by dirt reduced the need to launder the entire garment each time its collar needed attention. Maintaining a crisp white fabric collar nevertheless required washing, starching, drying and ironing. A traditional stiff collar could be rinsed to remove residual starch, washed, immersed in a starch solution, partially dried and pressed or curled into shape with an iron or specialized equipment.

Laundry work in nineteenth-century Europe and North America was generally understood as women's domestic labor. Historian Arwen Palmer Mohun describes the growth of mechanized commercial laundries in British and American cities from the mid-nineteenth century and the subdivision of washing, drying, starching and ironing into specialized industrial tasks. Detachable collars belonged to the same period of changing practices in garment maintenance; rubber and celluloid versions offered options that did not need the customary treatment applied to starched fabric collars.

Social and cultural significance

Business dress and social status

The white detachable collar was a recognizable feature of nineteenth-century men's business dress. Drawing on historian Michael Zakim's research, Melissa Bellanta describes how a relatively simple three-piece suit and white detachable collar formed part of an emerging American style of business clothing in the 1850s.

Bellanta identifies related developments among bankers, sharebrokers and clerks in the gold-mining towns of New South Wales during the early 1870s. Her analysis of contemporary photographs suggests that seemingly modest distinctions in clothing helped men present professional identities and distinguish themselves both from manual laborers and from more conventionally dressed elites.

Masculinity, posture and advertising

High, stiff detachable collars also figured in debates about the masculine body. In Orthopedic Manhood, Michael J. Murphy examines their relationship to changing ideas of bodily discipline, posture, health and middle-class masculinity in the United States between about 1880 and 1910. His interpretation emphasizes the way the collar's physical rigidity and visual prominence could contribute to a highly controlled appearance.

Advertising for companies such as Corliss-Coon linked detachable collars to athleticism and masculine self-presentation. An advertisement published in The Literary Digest in May 1909 depicted a man in business clothing enclosed within an exaggeratedly large collar, an image Murphy interprets in relation to contemporary concerns about physical strength and manliness.

At the turn of the twentieth century, physicians and dress reformers increasingly criticized restrictive forms of men's clothing, including high, stiff collars, for limiting movement or being uncomfortable. As men's dress became less structured during the early twentieth century, softer collars became more common.

Twentieth-century changes

Detachable collars continued to be worn in the early twentieth century even as leisure and sporting activities encouraged less restrictive styles of men's clothing. Diane Maglio's research on American men's undergarments between 1880 and 1930 describes garments adapted for changing distinctions between sport, informal activity and formal dress, including designs that accommodated different collar arrangements. Rigid detached collars became less common in everyday wear as softer shirts and collars gained favor.

Modern use

Detachable collars remain in use in some forms of legal, clerical, ceremonial and formal dress. Some barristers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada wear a wing collar with court bands. Forms of the clerical collar are also detachable, although contemporary versions may be made of flexible plastic and may not use traditional studs.

At Eton College, traditional school dress has included stiff collars and the upright, winged stick-up collar for certain pupils. Detachable wing collars may also be worn with white tie evening dress and some forms of morning dress. The very high imperial collar and other rigid Edwardian styles are now rarely worn in ordinary daywear.

See also

• Collar (clothing)
• Collar stud
• Laundry starch
• History of Western fashion