Shirt collar construction ★

The collar roll

A collar that rolls, curving up from the band and down to the point, rather than lying flat, frames the face and looks alive. A fused collar cannot roll; it can only lie. This is the difference people are responding to when they say a shirt looks expensive without being able to say why.

The button-down is the clearest case: an unlined collar of some length, buttoned down so it is forced into a curve. Shorten the collar or fuse it, and the roll disappears, which is what has happened to most button-downs sold today.

Collar height and the jacket

A shirt collar should be tall enough at the back to show above the jacket collar: about a centimetre and a half is the conventional target. A short collar disappears under the coat, leaves a gap at the neck and makes the whole outfit look ill-fitting even when everything else is right.

Most ready-to-wear shirts have shortened their collars over the last thirty years, which is why a bespoke shirt often looks better under a jacket for reasons the wearer cannot immediately identify.