Men's Clothing – Style Guide and News

The Quick Guide To Dress Shirt Collars

2008 April 6th
4 Comments

The choice of men’s shirt collars can be huge, however it is rather limited when it comes to off the rack dress shirts. Those dress shirts usually come with the same standard dress shirt collar. However, when it comes to the tailored or bespoke dress shirts then the choices for collars can be endless.

Here we cover 6 more or less typical collar types:

Remember that there will be more detailed information about this in our FREE Men’s Button Down Dress Shirt Guide.

1. Classic / Standard Dress Shirt Collar

This men’s shirt collar is what you will find with most dress shirts. It is a clean look and there really is not much wrong with having the classic collar. It keeps things simple and is in it self not a bold statement.

A tie is fine with this collar, however be sure to check if your collar slips out of the collar on the back side. This may be the case sometimes especially with wider ties.

This tie suits most faces and works fine with slim and medium width tie knots.

For more inspiration on dress shirt collars see our post on Unique Yet Cool Shirt Collars.

Filed under Shirt Guide and Tips
4 comments to...
“The Quick Guide To Dress Shirt Collars”
George
April 6th, 2008

This is great. I will def inetly use this next time i am getting a bespoke made shirt!


Fred
April 6th, 2008

I agree, helpful information… but how many different types of collars can you actually get made if your going for a tailored shirt?


Jeff Collins, Professional Haberdasher
April 7th, 2008

I have worked with 5 different factories in my 10 years in the custom clothing business. Some offer few options and some have too many. My current factory, which is on the East coast, is just right. They offer point collars with 7 degrees of spread, 5 curved collars, 3 button downs & of coarse the banded collar. If you take into consideration collar height-front & back, and tie space you can multiply these options into hundreds of possible combinations.

However most shirts are made with a 2.75″ to 3.25″ collar point length and either a regular to high collar back. My goal is to never make the choices confusing. I usually base point length and collar height on my clients neck & overall height. Close spread, medium spread and spread collars are also the norm. I have rarelymade the curved spreads for clients, made the banded collar a couple times & have a few clients requesting button down shirts. This leaves 9 more commonly used collars.

Something I try to always do is make sure the tie does not come out from under the back of the shirt collar. In order to do this a back height of at least 1.75″ is necessary. Someone over 5’10″ can usually have a back height of 2″.

My Best,

Jeff Collins
Professional Haberdasher
http://www.MyHaberdasher.com


vin
April 30th, 2008

where can i get a “soprano collar” shirt? I saw them once in a store but never again – my father loves them and I want to get him a few for fathers day. any suggestions?


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