I’m sure this has been asked before, but an interesting issue came up today at work - what exactly is the purpose of a fag tag (the little tag on the back of your shirt)? One possible explanation was to hang your shirt on a hook, but that makes no sense to me.
I use my “fag tags” to attach my superhero cape when I go out at night. I find the capes that come around your shoulders and clasp in the front are too restrictive, but you tend to not feel like a superhero at all unless you have a cape to swish about.
To hang up your shirt? Why didn’t they just sew in a hanger into the sholders of the shirt…it’d be less OBVIOUS! - Jinx 
::raises hand::
I have no idea what you’re talking about, unless you’re talking about the tag on the inside of every shirt, sweater, etc. But I don’t think you are, since their purpose is obvious.
He/She is referring to a small loop that is located on the outside of a shirt, right where the pleat starts at the bottom of the yoke (the part that covers the shoulders). It is used to hang your shirt up, like in a locker, and is popular with pin-point oxford shirts. All the rage with the preppy set in the '80s.
I know the things you’re talking about, and remember them being called that too. I have no idea what they’re for, but a word of advice: You won’t endear yourself to many hear using terms like “fag tags”. many here are rather sensitive about terms like that, even when the intent is benign.
And for a minute I thought he was talking about rainbow stickers.
Please do no make jokes about the slurs in our language.
Lands End used to (may still) call them “locker loops.”
some would argue that “fag” is hardly a slur in our language…but I’ll be sure to be more “P.C.” in the future.
Ah, now I understand. I don’t have to wear button-down shirts unless I’m going to a wedding, so it didn’t dawn on me. My WAG - to hang them in lockers at the gym for when business people go work out during their lunch hour and don’t want to wrinkle the work shirt .
FTR, I have never in my life heard this term. Other than being immature and offensive, why would that loop be called a “fag tag”? I fail to see the homosexual connotation.
The “fag tag” thing is, I think, a Jr High phenomenon, at least that’s where I first encountered it. Basically in the same category as “left/right ear piercing means you’re gay” or “wearing green on Thursdays means you’re gay” just a cruel Jr High taunt, with the added bonus that you could catch people by hooking a finger through the tag. But since those little tags on the back of shirts don’t really have another convenient, common name, it tends to stick in your mind.
You would wear a button-down shirt to a wedding?
Heartless Philistine.
It’s the baby-blue ruffled tux shirt or nothing…
or the “tuxedo t-shirt” and high-tops.
I can’t find a history with a quick google search, but I always associate the shirts with musical groups in the 50s and 60s. Groups like the Four Freshman, etc. are the first ones I remember wearing the things. Personally that’s the only kind of shirt I buy for dress-up and primarily they are on button-down oxfords.
Bob
In the middle of the sixties, in the middle of Wyoming, they were known as “fairy loops”. And some people collected them.
I’ve never heard the term ‘fag tag’ before. The things you learn on the SDMB!
My grandma also called them fairy loops (or angel loops, I don’t remember)
I always heard them called “fag tags.” Well, sometimes “fruit loops.”
We always called them Com’eers, as in “Come here” you’d say as you grabbed the person by the loop and dragged them in the direction you were going. Never heard the other terms.
(Don’t you pull my) “Shirt Loop” was a song by a Boston Punk rock band called DMZ, precursor to the Lyres.