A collar does more work than any other part of a shirt. It sits a few inches under your face, it frames whatever knot you tie, and it is the detail people register before they have clocked the cloth or the cut. Everything else on a shirt can be argued about. The collar cannot.
We shift a lot of shirts out of Driffield, and the questions that land in our inbox are nearly always about collars. Stand height. Point length. Whether the thing will lie flat under a jumper or ride up around the ears.
Where the Button Down Actually Started
John E. Brooks, grandson of the man who founded Brooks Brothers, watched a polo match in England in 1896 and noticed the players had fastened their collar points down to their shirt fronts so the flapping would stop blinding them mid chukka. He took the idea home to New York, and the shirt went into production in 1900. Brooks Brothers called it the polo collar, a name that stayed on the label for decades after everyone else had settled on button down.
It took another sixty odd years to become a British garment. Ben Sherman set up in Brighton in 1963 with a button down cut in American Oxford cloth, and the mod scene took to it within about a season. The box pleat down the back, the hanging loop, the extra button halfway up the sleeve placket. All of it came off Ivy League campus shirts and all of it got adopted wholesale, because it was foreign and precise and nobody else in a Brighton dance hall had one. Our Oxford shirts still carry those details, and the Ben Sherman range is where to look if you want the label that started it here.
The Roll, and Why A Fused Collar Kills It
The roll is the arc of cloth that lifts between the collar button and the collar band. A good one bows outward and throws a small shadow across the chest. A dead one lies flat like a napkin.
You get a roll from two things. Point length, which wants to be around three and a half inches, and a collar with a soft sewn in interlining rather than a glued one. Fusing means adhesive interlining bonded to the outer cloth under heat. It produces a collar that comes out of the machine crisp with no ironing, which sells an enormous number of shirts, and after thirty or forty hot washes the glue lets go and the collar bubbles like old wallpaper. We would take the collar that needs five minutes with an iron every single time. Most of our long sleeved shirts are cut with points long enough to move properly.
The Tab Collar and Its Second Life
A tab collar hides a small strip of cloth behind the knot. It fastens with a popper or a button, pulls the two collar leaves together and pushes the knot up and forward so it stands proud of the shirt front instead of sinking into it. Britain had them in the twenties as semi soft detachable collars, worn on day shirts and popularised by the Prince of Wales. They went quiet for thirty years. Then Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis were both photographed in them, and the mod scene picked the collar up almost immediately.
One warning, and we are not going to be talked out of it. A tab collar without a tie is a waste of a shirt, because the tab is visible, dangling and doing nothing at all. Button it to the throat with a knitted tie or leave it in the wardrobe. Relco London do the tidiest versions we stock, cut close with a short point.
Penny Round, Club and the Pin Question
The rounded collar came out of Eton in the 1860s, where a curved collar marked out one set of boys from another. It became the club collar in the London shirt trade, then the penny round in general use, apparently because the curve of the point matches the edge of an old penny. Points run short, usually two to two and a half inches, and the shape sits high and tight against the throat.
People will tell you a penny round reads as fancy dress. We disagree, and we think that view comes from seeing it done badly. On a plain white poplin under a three button jacket it is about as sharp as a shirt gets, and the suedeheads had it exactly right in 1969. Where it does fall over is on a loud print, because a round collar on a busy paisley is two ideas competing for the same square foot. Keep it to plain cloth or a small gingham check. The pin collar, with the eyelets and the little bar, is a lovely thing that nobody has time for on a Friday night.
Spread, Cutaway and the Size of the Knot
Spread is how far apart the collar points sit. A traditional point collar keeps them close together and nearly vertical, a classic spread opens them out towards the sides, and a cutaway pulls them right back towards the shoulder seams so a wide band of shirt front is left on show. The wider the gap, the bigger the knot you need to fill it, which is the whole reason the full Windsor exists.
| Collar | Typical point length | Spread | Best knot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Button down | 3.25 to 3.5 in | Narrow | Four in hand |
| Tab | 2.75 in | Narrow | Small knot or knitted tie |
| Penny round | 2 to 2.5 in | Narrow | Four in hand |
| Classic spread | 3 in | Open | Half Windsor |
| Cutaway | 2.75 in | Very wide | Full Windsor |
We would not put a cutaway anywhere near a mod wardrobe. It is a City shirt built for a fat Windsor and a heavy worsted suit, and it looks stranded and slightly embarrassed with a knitted tie or an open neck. If your knot is small, your collar should be narrow.
Matching the Collar to Your Face and Neck
A round face wants longer points and a narrower spread, because the vertical lines cut across the width and lengthen everything. A long narrow face wants the opposite, and a spread collar will do more for it than any haircut. Neck length matters more than most people allow for. Collar stand, which is the band the collar folds over, runs about 3.5cm on a soft casual shirt and 4.5cm on a formal one. On a short neck that taller band will swallow you whole. On a long neck it fills the gap and stops the shirt looking like it has slipped down.
Ignore the old advice about matching collar width to lapel width. It is a rule invented by tailors with a suit to sell, and in all the years we have been sending shirts out, not one customer has ever mentioned it.
What Sits Flat Under Knitwear
Button downs and jumpers argue with each other. The collar has to fold over a knitted crew neck, the buttoned points bunch under the rib, and you end up with a small lump either side of the throat that no amount of tugging will settle. Tab and penny round collars behave far better, because they are short, they sit close and there is nothing on them to catch.
If you are set on a button down under knitwear, pick a v neck rather than a crew and let the collar sit outside the knit instead of trapping the points underneath. A cardigan is easier again, because the opening is deeper and the collar has somewhere to go. Cotton knits are kinder to a soft collar than lambswool, which grips and drags the points sideways over the course of an evening.
Collar FAQ
Collar questions, answered the way we answer them by email.
- What is a collar roll and why does it matter? The roll is the curve of fabric that lifts between the collar button and the collar band. It gives a button down its shape instead of a flat line across the chest. Longer points and an unfused collar are what produce it.
- Can you wear a button down collar with a suit? Yes, and anyone who says otherwise has not looked at a photograph from 1965. Mods wore Oxford button downs under mohair suits all through the mid sixties and it looked entirely right. Keep the knot small.
- Do tab collars work without a tie? No. The tab is designed to be hidden behind a knot, so with an open neck it just hangs there looking unfinished. Wear a tab collar buttoned up with a tie or pick a different shirt.
- What is the difference between a club collar and a penny round? Nothing meaningful. Club collar is the older British trade name from its Eton origins, penny round is the term the scene has used since the sixties.
- Which collar works best under a jumper? A short point or a penny round, because they sit close to the neck and do not bunch. Button downs are the worst option under a crew neck.