I have a pile of dress shirts that have those removable collar tabs. And I have a pile of questions about those tabs.
[list=a]
[li]Are they even called tabs?[/li][li]Why? What is the advantage over the tabs that are sown in?[/li][li]Is there a name for this type of collar and what might that be?[/li][li]Where can I buy replacements? I forget occasionally to remove them and my dry cleaner rarely returns them. As a result, I have only 6 or 8 of them for about a dozen shirts.[/li][li]And finally, in his song It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me, just what the hell does Billy Joel mean when he says “Maybe I should buy some old tab collars?”[/li][/list=a]
I’ll have a go at some of the questions:
A: I knew what you were talking about, but I’d call them collar stays.
B: Maybe the advantage is that they ARE replaceable. So that if you melt or mangle one during ironing, you can put in a new one.
C: no idea
D: Shirt shops? Or maybe cutting up a 2 liter plastic bottle to make your own?
E: This song always made me think of those tuxedo shirts with the tiny ‘tab’ collars, but I could be wrong.
B) You can conveniently have a soft or stiff collar in the same shirt, also, sewn-in tabs can begin to create impressions in the collar when overstarched by an unscrupulous drycleaner.
C) again, AFAIK, “Tab Collar”
D) My dry cleaner sells them. I believe I’ve seen a small display at the Men’s Wearhouse on Wabash in Chicago. Specific enough?
E) Come on, what else goes with a bright orange pair of pants?
They’re not officially called tabs. They’re “removable collar stiffeners.”
Their advantage is versatility – the same shirt, without the stiffener, is supposed to be a more casual look. It probably has something to do with washing, too – maybe it’s easier on the fabric if they’re taken out before laundering.
There are TONS of men’s collars. Well, maybe not tons. But a lot. Here are a few.
I couldn’t find a place that sold them separately, but most fine men’s shirt shops said they would give extras to their customers if asked. And I bet you could find a tailor in town who could get them for you. Here are some tailors in the Chicago area. And your dry cleaner might have a stash that he’d be willing to share with you.
In case no one has beat me to this, tab collars have little flaps extending from each side of the collar gap. Each flap is about 3/8 inch wide, and just long enough to snap together behind the (usually skinny) tie. This style was briefly big in the early-to-mid sixties. The effect was to make the collar and tie seem more smooth (and even more uncomfortable.)
Having found myself at a bar mitzvah out of town, with my best dress shirt but no stays (my wife having removed them before laundering the shirt), I was able to buy a package of a dozen or so in the hotel gift shop, from the same display area as the sewing kits, etc. Apparently it’s the sort of item that gets overlooked frequently when packing.
I don’t know, but I suspect that stoli and stargazer are on the right track in their answers to your second question: the hard edges of the stay would be a significant stress point during laundering and ironing, and would cause the fabric to fray more quickly. With cheap shirts that can be expected to wear out quickly anyway, it doesn’t matter, so they’re sewn in.
Uke, I need a stiff collar to support my floppy neck. That seems to happen to me a lot. Especially after 4 or 5 hours in the bar. And it’s too damned cold to take my shoes off. Hell, it’s so cold I ain’t takin’ anything off. Not even for Gaudere.
Mr. C. Fire, some of us have a sartorial image to uphold. Well, that, and nothing better to spend our money on.
Since I happen to work for a clothing manufacturer, I think that I may be able to answer these. Sort of. Of course, I’ll be using almost no information gleaned from my employment, but rather from my father and his shirts, along with my mother’s years of ironing them.
Collar stays. 'Cause they make the collar stay in place.
Removable stays are less likely to become deformed during the laundry process. If the stays become deformed, the collar doesn’t lay flat, and consumers become unhappy with the product, and may not buy the same brand.
No freakin’ clue. I think they are pretty common in dress shirts. I would refer to them as a dress collar.
As to buying them, I don’t know. My mother made replacements out of gallon milk jugs when necessary. Those are pretty easy to cut with scissors. Trace one onto the jug, and cut around it. Make sure that you wash the jug out well before doing this. It wouldn’t do to smell of sour milk.
No freakin’ idea. I always thought they were wide collars that used these stays to appear as wide as possible. Think 1970’s collars.
You gotta have collar stays. If you take them out, your collar is all floppy and the points of the collars curl and point up, it just looks bad, especially when wearing a tie.
I had a hard time finding replacement collar stays, but I finally found them at a fabric and sewing supply store.
Collar stays keep the points of the collar stiff, as has been pointed out.
A tab collar has a little flap (in addition to the top button of the shirt) that mates with either a snap or button and serves to pull the collar close together (practically around the knot of your tie). The look is pretty distinctive and flashy.
You can usually get collar stays from your dry cleaner, or you can, if you’ve got some money to burn, buy brass ones.
You can get these at almost any fabric store. They have them for people who make men’s shirts. You’ll probably have to ask an employee to help you find them. If you really need to, you can order them online. Here are some links.
