Shirt collars
The equality of the dress shirt as a skin-tight garment for women and men prevailed in the 16th century. Prior to that, the shirt was exclusively female for 2,500 years.
The conquest of the shirt by gentlemen can be called a "friendly takeover." Nevertheless, the conquerors gave the shirt collar a criminal name: Patricide. The high, stiff, buttoned stand-up collar made the dangerous masculinity obvious. There was no alternative to this until 1863, when the Königsberg brothers from Vienna invented the collar that was permanently attached to the shirt. It was offered in two variants: Turn-down and stand-up collars. A short time later, a patent was filed for the continuous button placket, but it was not implemented until 1900.
The heirs of the patricide present themselves as diverse, whimsical and fashionable.
Among the countless collar variations, some of which have a short life, Christian Weber has chosen three classics:
Stand-up collar
It is one of the direct successors of the paternal collar, presents itself sportily in a comfortable height measurement, can be worn closed with a button or open and folded down so that it takes on the shape of a casual, slim-fitting shirt collar.
Button-down collar
The fall birth of the button-down collar occurred in the game of polo. To prevent the pointed ends of the collars from flying into the faces of English polo players and causing them to fall, they were unceremoniously buttoned to the shirt's chest. The American shirt tailor John E. Brooks, who visited London in 1896, liked the idea so much that he exported it to the USA. With great success. Button-down shirts were worn without a tie in both the old and new worlds. When Gianni Agnelli, boss of Fiat, entered the society stage in a button-down shirt with tie, the eccentric L'Avvocato confirmed his role as an influencer of Italian men's fashion: the tie with the button-down shirt became a signal of nonchalance.