Collars

I recently gathered quite a strong opposition by arguing for contrast collars and cuffs. It seems that very many people don't like the look, which begs a question regarding why. As we know from history, the wealthier individuals have traditionally clustered towards white shirts, namely to demonstrate wealth by being able to keep the shirts white when the lesser people would soil them quickly. The story goes that white shirts eventually became boring and thus some individuals took to wearing also colored shirts, but opted for white collars and cuffs as these were the parts which would soil most frequently, thus still being able to differentiate from the pure blue collared group. Since then it seems that most people associate contrast collars with bankers and other suspicious types.

So thus it seems that ultimately there would be three potential reasons for why people might object to contrast collars: 1) because they are, to an extent, a sign of wealth, 2) because they are, to an extent, associated with questionable people who aren't too well liked these days, or 3) because of aesthetic reasons. The first point is easy to discard as it would imply that the same people would also need to object to white shirts, something which isn't as widely spread as a viewpoint as the hatred towards contrast collars. So then it must have something to do with the links to certain shady occupations or pure aesthetics.

We can't do much about the second point, but the third point warrants some more discussing. My girl friend is very open about her distaste towards these types of shirts and bases her argument on the fact that they just look horrible. There are some theories as to why contrast collars might appear horrible. Some say that if the tie is too pale it will get lost in the color of the shirt and thus allow the collar to stand out too much. This point is increasingly relevant as the contrast between the shirt and tie increases, namely by making the shirt out of stronger colors than the traditional light blue or light pink. Others suggest that the white collars draw the attention upwards and into the face of the person, and that this wouldn't be a good thing. I can't for the love of life recall the reasoning behind this argument, but I guess a tongue-in-cheek interpretation might include the face in question in the equation: if you have an ugly face, you won't want to draw attention to it... Discarding the second point we still find two things to bear in mind: make sure that your tie dominates the shirt, not the other way around, and that the contrast between the shirt and the collar doesn't become too drastic.

Moving on, to provoke people even more, I decided to go ahead and order yet another MTM shirt from France, this time with a nice 120s poplin with blue and white stripes combined with contrast collars and cuffs. And to ensure that there are enough stares, I also ordered a pair of braces from the UK to conclude the slimy banker look, which should be perfect for the upcoming premiere of Wall Street, the sequel.