Figure 1.--This 1968 prtrait drawing shows a boy with a buttoned collar. Either the boys' mother or the artist decided a buttoned collar was appropriate for a formal portrait.

Boys began the 19th century wearing comfortable unviottened collars, but bt mid-century usually buttoned their collars. Boys for decades wore their shirt collars buttoned even with not wearing bows or ties. This generally became less common, especially after World war II (1939-45).

Chronology

19th century

Boys began the 19th century with comfortable looking open collars on their skeleton suits. This was in part an expression of the movement for more practical boys' clothes promoted by Rosseau and other 18th century writers that addressed education and child's care. Gradually as the century progressed, skeleton suits with buttoned collars, often high collars became popular. When skeleton suits went out of style, boys were wearing shirts and blouses, often with button collars. HBC is unsure as to how commonly boys wore their shirt collars buttoned. Certainly for any occasion requiring boys to dress up, a occasions we now consider informal were considered formal at the time, the collar would be buttoned. Boys attending school, for example, would usually button their collars. In part this was a function of the increasing popularity for boys to wear collar bows. To wear a bow. of course, the collar had to be buttoned. Bows were commonly worn by boys until the early 20th century.

20th century

They were repaced by ruffled collars worn without bows and ties--in both cases again worn with buttoned collars. It was not until the 1920s that large numbers of boys began wearing unbottened collars. Many boys buttoned their collars when attending school, even without ties. Gradually as the decades passed, more and more boys wore their collar unbuttoned. HBC has noted boys with buttoned collars in the 1960s and 70s, but this had largely disappeared by the 1980s. The major exception to this was the shirts worn without ties by Iranians who considered ties a Western affectation. This style has appeared in the west during the 1990s, but not commonly worn by boys.

Conventions

HBC is not entirely sure why shirts were so commonly worn with the collars buttoned. Some non-conformists like Lord Byron made a point of wearing unbotted collars, but they were lonely exceptions. Boys by the 1830s were almost always buttoning their collars, especially for any formal event. Several factors may be involved. First, the 19th century was a more formal time. Second, buttoned collars were considered more modest or proper.

National Differences

There were probably difference among countries, but HBC has not yet assessed this question.

Personal Experiences

Some personal experiences are available.

American boy in the 1970s

National Public Radio cairred a number of intersting little pieces about boyhood experiences. I did not notice where the boy lived, but he described how his parents, especially his mother, insisted he always button his collar button. He did not go into detail why, but his parents felt it was a matter of decorum. He was allowed to unbutton his collar for play, but for school or any formal occasion, he had to button it. This was the case all through grade school and junior high. He was not the only boy who buttoned his collar, but they were a small minority. He remembers when beginning 10th grade that his lady math teacher, to his surprise, reached down and unbuttoned his collar. When he revbuttoned it, she unbottoned it again, telling him he looked better. After that he alwys wore his shirt buttoned, but rebuttoned it when he returned home after school each afternoon.