How to Clothe Men’s Necks: Collars Past, Collars Today and, Perhaps, Tomorrow

Rudolph H. Weingartner

   Fashions of clothes have changed through history and they differ from one region of the globe to another.  Perhaps more attention is paid to the fashions of women, at least in contemporary Western society, but men’s fashions change as well, if not as much nor always as obviously.  Of the huge topic of evolving fashions in clothes I  want only to focus on one tiny aspect of male attire: how fashion treats a man’s throat, the region above the shoulders and below the chin.  I want to deal with this topic because I believe that something has gone wrong there in that men’s fashion has not kept up with changes of men’s customary public behavior.  I will spell this out after an overview of how clothes have dealt with those male necks.

   So what’s the problem?  One problem designers of clothes must solve is how a garment should be brought to an aesthetically satisfactory close below the face which of course remains uncovered.  To be sure, this issue does not really arise for countless fashions of the past practices nor for numerous parts of the world in our own time.  These many and widespread styles all exemplify a simple principle: whatever covers the body from the bottom of the garment goes all the way to the neck without changing.  The throat or, speaking geographically, the top of the garment, does not get special treatment.  Versions of this style are prevalent historically and contemporaneously, with much variety in the shape of the covering and, even more, in the textures, patterns and colors of the garments’ fabrics.  Togas and kaftans—each type coming in many different styles—are just two examples [see fig. 1 and 2].

But there are also many styles—again varying considerably depending on time and place—that pay special attention  to the throat, serving both as a special ornament and a sharper break between the body’s covering and the uncovered face.  Elaborate lace collars are examples, beautifully depicted in Dutch paintings by Rembrandt and Frans Hals among others [see fig. 3 and 4]. 

Indeed, there are quite different fancy traditions, both aristocratic and bourgeois, with throat ornamentation of considerable variety, even just staying in Europe [see fig. 5 and 6].

   When we get to the Victorian period, the modern tie in its various manifestations makes its appearance, with subsequent changes less dramatic than those that have gone before [ fig. 7 and 8].

Ignoring formal wear, the two most prevalent types of ties are the long tie, both ends of which come down to the waist
 [see fig. 9].

 (I measured one of my nice ones: it is a whopping 60” or 152cm.)  I call it the “long” tie, since what it is actually named calls for an explanation that it doesn’t really get.  Its name is the Four in Hand tie, “possibly inspired by the knots used by coachmen to tie off the reins of their horses.”  The other prevalent tie is the bow tie, which, like the four in hand, comes in a great many shapes and in an endless (literally) variety of patterns and colors [see fig. 10].

   These ties became a well-nigh universal male accessory: look at some photos, a few decades old, of a gathering of men and you will find that just about everyone has a hat on his head and is wearing a tie [see fig. 11]. 

So far I have been unable to get that picture to show up here, though I haven't given up.  In the meantime you can find it as follows:

file:///Users/rudolphweingartner/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Masters/2014/04/03/20140403-172043/Unknown

And to go with these ties, a shirt has developed that—again, with a great many variations in styling, material, colors, and patterns—nevertheless generally preserves a fairly unified gestalt.  This, the dress shirt, has buttons down the middle from the top that is, the throat, to the bottom of the shirt, give or take a foot below the waist [see fig. 12].

  It has long sleeves going to the wrist, ending with cuffs that either close with a button on the shirt or with French cuffs for which the wearer must supply a pair of cuff links.

    But now back to my topic: the treatment of the male throat.  The dress shirt features a collar that goes around the neck, differing in style in width the shape of the points and the alternatives of having those points buttoned down or not.  But for all dress shirts—and remember, I have excluded formal wear—the collar serves as a sleeve for the tie, anchoring it, so to speak, around the neck.  That works, if somewhat differently, for both the four in hand and the bow tie.   If nature had produced those ties and the dress shirt, rather than designers of men’s clothes, one would step back and exclaim in wonder how the process of evolution could produce two important items (or two types, if you like) that are in perfect harmony with each other.  While I don’t know which came first, tie or shirt, I would guess that when the cravat—many types much too bulky to be harnessed by a collar—became the much more modest Victorian tie, the dress shirt was developed to hold that tie in place.  Whichever came first, tie and dress shirt go splendidly together.

   And now, after that very long introduction, to the actual point of this disquisition, the treatment of which will be quite short.

   What evolution has put together, practice, starting not all that long ago, has pulled asunder.  No longer is it the case that every businessman, every professor, every male audience member at plays and concerts, every politician—indeed every card carrying member of the middle class—wears a tie in public, as they go about their various occupations and activities.  Accordingly, no tie of neither kind, yet a dress shirt not buttoned at the throat, but open one, two, or even three buttons down.
   I agree that it is convenient, not to say lazy, to dress that way and that it effectively signals a sometimes (but only sometimes) appropriate informality.  And I confess to have myself succumbed that that fashion, with laziness the main motive. But it is ugly!  Collars are scrunched in most unaesthetic ways and not surprisingly, since they were clearly designed to go with those missing ties. The result is neither fish nor fowl.  Neither does the top of the shirt's opening come to closure in some aesthetically acceptable way, nor does does it eliminate the need for such closure.  Ugliness has become pervasive. [See fig. 13 and 14].

 Ignoring still more informal attire—meaning primarily the ubiquitous T-shirt—I can think of two solutions.  One of these is a shirt that has already built in it an aesthetically acceptable closing at the level of the throat, of which the Mandarin Collar shirt is the most prevalent example.  While, again,  designs vary a lot, what defines this shirt is a narrowish band around the neck, with or without a button in front [see fig. 15]. 

The other alternative is the Open Neck Shirt.  However varied it may be in other details, it has a collar with an open V at the center, revealing throat and perhaps a bit of chest, making a tie most inappropriate [see fig. 16 and 17].

   Both of these solutions come with a two-fold inconvenience that is in effect implied by the account already given.  If you want to start the afternoon, say, to wear a tie to the office and subsequently go to a place where a tie not needed, my de rigueur recommendation requires changing shirts.  And to add insult to injury, the correctly attired gentleman will need to pay for two sets of shirts for daily wear: one suitable for a tie and one correct without one.  It’s not news that being well dressed calls for an effort and requires an outlay of a bit more cash.  Until they come up with a shirt that is truly appropriate when worn with or without a tie and until men’s fashion adopts it as a norm, the man who wants to be well dressed will have to put up with this twofold inconvenience.  But that is nothing compared to what women must do just to come close to being in fashion!