Figure 1.--This unidentified teenage boy had his portrait tken in 1919. The photographer was Woburn in Hackensack, New Jersey. He is clearly wearing a detachable collar, but unfortuntely we can not differentiate among the different material for the collars.

Detachable collars were made in both cotton and linen. Linnen was the most expensive collar and used for the stiff formal look. Cotton was used for both a casual soft look, but they could be sarched. People would have special collar boxes to store these fabric collars, especially the linen ones. These collars had the disadvantage that they had to washed and starched. This in effect increased the cost of wearing these collars. Unfortunately, while we can often spoy detachable collars in old photographs, it is virtully impossible to determine the material used for the collars that we see in period portraits.

Cotton

Cotton collars were thick than the linen collar. They were not used for the really stiff look of the linen collar. They could be worn as a soft collar or they could be starched and iron for a more formal look. As they were heavier than the linen collars, they tended to last longer.

Linene

Linene appeared about 1862. They are linen laminated onto a stiff cardboard. These collars were very stiff, but have material texture. The could be wiped off with a moist sponge or cloth, but they could not be laundered.

Linen

The highest quality collars were linen. They were thin, but worn worn heavily starched. They were ironed with a special machine. A normal flat iron woud produce a flat collar. The machine both starched the inside of the collar and ironed the collar to be curved so it went nicely arond the neck. This meant that they could not be properly done at home, but had to be taken to a laundry.

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Created: 11:51 PM 4/14/2008
Last updated: 11:52 PM 4/14/2008