Tag Archives: Starched Linen Collars

1907 Cluett, Peabody & Co., Arrow, “Avolyn” linen fold collar for men

And to show off the first of the “A” name Arrow collars from my eBay early 20th Century collar bag purchase, here is the Avolyn Collar, which is narrower than the Amolek and Ancover, with a wide spread:

Arrow Avolyn Collar

The Arrow Avolyn is an easy to date collar, because it was not only heavily advertised in its first year by Cluett, Peabody & Co. (as their new collars were), but was widely reported to have been worn by the most famous man in America at the time of its launch. The style is a bit “retro” for 1907, looking almost like a throwback to earlier decades, but this style never really stopped as it was one that was more comfortable by being narrower and having a wide spread, especially for any older man with a thick neck. As a result this type of collar style never went completely “out” of use like more trendy styles.

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1922 Geo. P. Ide & Co. Inc., Ide Brand, “Idewyn” linen detachable fold collar for men, with roll on the front part of the fold.

This starched collar is in a style so basic it might be from anywhere from 1890-1935, but it includes an interesting starching feature and unusual “Idewyn” name from which it was possible to “date” it more narrowly: The collar includes a stamp with a laundry directions to “IRON FRONT WITH ROLL” which following makes for an unusual top view.

Continue reading 1922 Geo. P. Ide & Co. Inc., Ide Brand, “Idewyn” linen detachable fold collar for men, with roll on the front part of the fold.

Geo. P. Ide & Co., Ide Brand, “Stratton” linen starched fold collar with a lock front for men.

Stratton Collar by Ide. The unusual looking curved extension on the wearers left side of the collar front helps to lock the collar into position which keeps it from bending with the wearer’s motion and pinching the skin of the neck or distorting the intended shape of the collar.
Continue reading Geo. P. Ide & Co., Ide Brand, “Stratton” linen starched fold collar with a lock front for men.

Places to buy Detachable Collars, get them laundered, etc.

Buying Collars:

Amazon Drygoods (Predates Amazon.com to which it is not related. It is a long standing historical clothing supply store, it sells new paper and cloth ready-made collars in historical styles, collar buttons and shirt fronts. The pressed paper and laminate , and can usually last through a 3-weekend run of a college play. The collars are made on the original 1860s machinery of the Reversible Collar Company, original maker of Linene collars, a paper-cloth laminate, which Amazon Drygoods purchased in the 1980s when after the R.C. Co. and it’s successor Gibson-Lee went under after over 100 years of business. So, though these are laminate, they are actually some of the most period-correct collars you can get).

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Some Books For Studying The Detachable Collar Industry History in the USA

I’ve been working on assigning dates to Detachable Starched Collars I own with information I’ve found through advertisements in Newspapers.com , Patent Records, clipped ads for sale on eBay, etc but was looking for more. Now I have run into some online copyright expired books and magazines that I think may help with doing this also. Many later collars have a lot of information about brand names, place of origin and manufacturing company names printed on the inside that help with this, and these books seem like they may be useful for narrowing down dates on collars by tracking the history of the name changes in the companies. Collar companies in the US were constantly eating one another, combining, breaking apart and vanishing through the whole second half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th Century. Cluett for example went through all sorts of changes that may help date their collars. Some parts of these books seem to track a few of the dates of these mutations. If there is someone with better obsessive compulsive genes for working on forming this into cheat sheets and databases of collar names and dates faster, feel free to try. Meanwhile, if you are looking to “date” your own collars this is a good place to start.

Continue reading Some Books For Studying The Detachable Collar Industry History in the USA

1929 The Arrow Style Book & Wholesale Price List – Catalog of Cluett, Peabody & Co. Collars & Shirts

1929 The Arrow Style Book & Wholesale Price List

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