ABSTRACT
Legend has it that the detachable collar was invented in 1827 by Hannah Lord Montague, wife of a businessman in Troy, New York, to solve a common household problem. Collars had long been linked to high status. The first collar manufacturers found ready markets for detachable collars because the proportion of men who wore formal dress in public daily was increasing. Detachable collars simultaneously displayed outer personal qualities and represented the private body and inner garments. Yet many men still wore detachable collars, and attached shirt collars were often white, their presence highlighted through color contrast. Also, by the 1920s the economy and occupational structure had changed, and with it, white-collar work and perceptions of detachable collars. The Arrow Collar Man, an idealized image of the new masculinity, appeared in mass-circulation publications aimed at the expanded middle class but was likely observed by many more humble Americans as well.
