False-collar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The false collar is a detachable collar fastened by two metal studs, one attached at the front and one at the back to hold the collar to the shirt. Using a false collar allows the shirt to be washed without the special washing a starched collar requires. Although they have fallen out of favour for everyday use, starched collars are nigh essential for correct appearance whilst wearing white tie, and wing collars having nothing to lose and everything to gain from the process, which ensures that the 'wings' to not droop to an unacceptable degree. Starched, detachable cuffs, however, have truly fallen by the wayside with all but the most dedicated having abandoned them.
Modern starching of detachable collars involves the dipping of said collars into a starching solution of starch and water before 'cooking' the starch with a hot iron before, finally, curling the now clean, stiff collar by drawing, slowly, the collar between the board and the iron pressed together. This process takes some time and is considerably more tedious than the alternative in the form of attached collars with the option of spray-on starch, but its subscribers stand by the superior outcome. This is characterised through pristinely white, smooth, stiff collars which hold their shape until they are washed. The neccesity of collar studs to attach the finished out-come helps to lend character to the final ensemble, formal or not, and the latter form one of the few remaining items of male jewellery acceptable to society, with cufflinks and watches bringing up the vanguard. Collar studs are usually highly decorative affairs, often made of precious or semi-precious metals and can come in a variety of designs.
Detachable collars are typically kept in a collar box; a small, circular box in which the collars can better keep their shape. These often come in 'sets' with similarly (though smaller to scale) designed stud boxes, and help to negate what, along with the washing/starching procedure, presents the main drawback to false-collars, that studs, being small, are easily lost and, coming in pairs, not easy to replace.
Hannah Lord Montague (see the links below) is supposed to have invented this collar in Troy, New York in 1827, when she tried snipping the collar off of one of her husband's shirts to wash it and then sewed it back on. Rev. Ebenezar Brown, a businessman in town, proceeded to commercialize it.
The manufacture of detachable collars and shirts became a big industry in Troy, NY, and the general popularity of this type of removable, washable collar led to use of the terms 'white collar' for clerical workers and 'blue collar' for factory or manual workers, terms still in use at the beginning of the 21st century even though false collars fell out of fashion in the first half of the 20th century.
A clerical collar is a special kind of false collar, which closes in back rather than in front.
