Collar Stays? Really?

[jbsegal]

Until the past 2 weeks, I don't think I've EVER owned a shirt with collar stays, including my custom-tailored Maxwell's shirts.

In my shopping for my new job, I now own 3, and I'm perplexed.

Is it just Collar Stay Time in the fashion world? Or have I just somehow missed them in the past?

(Really, I need to check all of my older dress shirts and make sure that none of them take stays, and that I've just been wearing them floppy collared when I shouldn't have been..)

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

missed about the new job! Congrats!

[coraline]

it does seem to be suddenly an In thing.

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

Usually the collar stays phase in and out of fashion along with some kind of change in the collars. Longer collar points tend to need stays more; lighter/thinner/smoother fabrics; non-button-down. But I'm miles out of touch with masculine fashion right now. Could it be a "MadMen" thing?

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Sometimes shirts have internal non-removable collar stays, too.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and really 'removable' should've been in the post.

[c1.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of shirts from Lands End, and a bunch from Marks and Sparks. Both have stays. Yes, they're a few years old, but I think it's less about when you buy shirts, as it's about from whom.

(You might want to check the spelling on "EVERY". Looks like there's an extraneous Y.)

[truthspeaker.livejournal.com]

[looking up what a collar stay is]

Wait. You're not supposed to remove those when you get the shirt? Really? I thought they were there solely for shipping purposes (like the pin keeping the shirt closed). I always took mine out and threw them away.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Nope. They keep the collar pointy and neat.

I think there was an extended period of 'relaxed' fashion, where folks were happy to let their collars roll... and as Rikibeth points out, the non-removable stay is also in the equation someplace.

[truthspeaker.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the removable stays are *ugly* since you can see this bit of white plastic stick out.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

If you're wearing the shirt with a tie, the ends of the stays are invisible. If you're wearing it without a tie, why wear a dress shirt?

[truthspeaker.livejournal.com]

Why? Two words: Business Casual.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Yep. This.
This is the only reason I'm buying button-front collared shirts at the moment.
Of the 3 shirts I mentioned in the post, none of them would look any good at ALL with a tie, IMO.

On the other hand, Eddy? Who's looking at the under-side of your collar??

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Dress shirts have nice pockets for carrying one's PDA.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Lands End makes polos with breast pockets...

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

I've assumed they're removable so they don't get destroyed in the dryer.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I don't know about that — but you for sure don't want them in place when you're ironing.

[foldedfish.livejournal.com]

Most of my dress shirts (meaning specifically the fancy ones to wear with suits and such, not casual ones) have had collar stays for the last decade. And not because I've sought them out. So I don't think this is all that recent of a trend.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, I've never paid much attention to fashion: I bought my first dress shirt (and, come to think of it, my most recent one) at Brooks Brothers, and most of the rest have come from other places where the styles don't change a lot (Nordstrom; Lands End). But I don't think collar stays are cyclical. I wore dress shirts more or less every day from 1977 (when an insecure teenager decided to bury his working-class roots) to 1996 (when an insecure nerd started wearing all-black all-the-time) and again intermittently since about 2005. A slight majority of my dress shirts over the years have been button-downs, but of the rest, all have had (removable) collar stays. I can't imagine trying to wear a non-button-down collar with a tie without collar stays.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

I should check the dress shirts I got from Marty via you.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Heh. Let me know.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Collar stays are pretty normal for non-button-down collars. You can even get engraveable metal ones to replace the plastic ones with.

Maybe what's changed is not the shirts but the job. Or the man. :-)


Whatever you wear, good luck with the new job!

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about collar stays, but am trying to imagine you in fancy custom-tailored dress shirts for work.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

As an historical data point, when I was working around Wall Street ('93-'95), about half my shirts had collar stays. They were of diverse brands bought cheap from Burlington Coat Factory.

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble thinking Maxwell's *doesn't* put in stays. Maybe it's an option and Mr. Bob assumes the Code Monkey clientele doesn't want them?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Add me to the list of people with shirts with collar stays. I got my first collar-stayed shirt in college. At the time I had no idea what the damn things were.