Tag Archives: 1900s

Costume History, Menswear

Some Books For Studying The Detachable Collar Industry History in the USA

I’ve been working on assigning dates to Detachable Starched Collars I own with information I’ve found through advertisements in Newspapers.com , Patent Records, clipped ads for sale on eBay, etc but was looking for more. Now I have run into some online copyright expired books and magazines that I think may help with doing this also. Many later collars have a lot of information about brand names, place of origin and manufacturing company names printed on the inside that help with this, and these books seem like they may be useful for narrowing down dates on collars by tracking the history of the name changes in the companies. Collar companies in the US were constantly eating one another, combining, breaking apart and vanishing through the whole second half of the 19th Century and first half of the 20th Century. Cluett for example went through all sorts of changes that may help date their collars. Some parts of these books seem to track a few of the dates of these mutations. If there is someone with better obsessive compulsive genes for working on forming this into cheat sheets and databases of collar names and dates faster, feel free to try. Meanwhile, if you are looking to “date” your own collars this is a good place to start.

New! Online Articles on Collars & Related Topics:

Costume History, Menswear

Litholin Collar Ads from 1906

The Litholin Brand of Collars seems to burst on the scene in a 1906 media blitz of small but inventive little ads in nearly every media market in the US.
Interestingly, lots of 1880s celluloid collar ads are of an overtly racist anti Chinese bent. This is the only one of these in this set of ads.

As 1906 ends this campaign of these single column mini ads gives way to a more varied group of large and small ads of different designs in 1907.

Costume History, Sewing

Searle Manufacturing Co. Sorosis Woman’s Detachable Collar c.1900

Detachable starched collars were also popular for women in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries.  Typically they were more expensive than men’s models, had embroidered or lace decoration, were lighter weight, and were more varied in style.  This one has hand fagoting insertion.  The name of the collar seems to refer to the Sorosis Club of NYC, the first club in the US for professional women. 

 

Costume History, Menswear

Cluett, Peabody & Co. Arrow Brand “Ancover” linen fold collar for men (post 1899).

Also in my recent eBay purchase of a collar bag and 7 assorted Early 20th Century men’s linen starched detachable collars is an “Ancover” collar, somewhat similar to the “Amolak” previously posted.  It too is clearly post 1899 because the Cluett name that is stamped is Cluett, Peabody & Co.

Arrow Ancover Collar

You can reproduce this type of collar making a pattern from one of these scans. 

Costume History, Menswear

Cluett, Peabody & Co., Arrow Brand, “Amolek” linen fold collar for men (post 1899).

I recently purchased a small early 20th Century man’s collar bag on eBay with 7 collars still in it.  It was an ordinary enough travel bag such as any middle class man might own in the 1890-1920 era, but unusually, the 7 collars were each a different style, with several different brands represented. 

As I care about collecting different types of these collars, rather than the more expensive hobby of collecting the containers, it was a good deal.  The Arrow Amolek was one of these.  

This general style of collar was popular in the 1890s-1920s, but seems to be most popular in the mid 1890s and late 1910s.

Similar looking collars from 1894

Similar shape of collar from 1914: “Haverstock” by Ide

1916 Arrow Ashby Lexicon

1919 Arrow Argonne

1919 Earl & Wilson Silk Moire Soft Collars in similar styles

However, the collar cannot be from the mid 1890s as the Cluett company was not called “Cluett, Peabody and Co.” until 1899, so it is a post-1899 collar.

However, I know what you really want is those handy collar scans which can be used to make collar patterns.  This one you can use if you need the same size as the original and have a long-paper printer:

Or this one for making a collar to another size which can print on 8.5×11 paper:

Costume History, Menswear

“Falcon” fold collar, Arrow Brand, Cluett, Peabody & Co. c.1904-1919

The “Falcon” Collar by Arrow Brand of Cluett, Peabody & Co. shows a 1904 patent for the unusual curved shape of the inner neck band. The outer shape is a style that both existed at that time but was most often seen in ads from 1914-1919. Cluett used this unusual  shape for a minority of their collars for a number of years as a special “comfort” style of collar that appealed to some customers.

The “Falcon” collar as laid out flat on a scanner.

Arrow “Falcon” Collar scan that can be printed out and used to make a pattern. Part 1 of 2

Arrow “Falcon” Collar scan that can be printed out and used to make a pattern. Part 2 of 2

1919 ad for rival brand Ide collars, showing several similar styles to the “Falcon”.

1914 ad for the similar looking “Winona” collar by Arrow Brand, illustrated by J.C. Leyendecker

  Similar shape of collar from 1914: “Haverstock” by Ide

Costume History, Menswear

“Tyfold” fold collar, 1902 by Cluett, Peabody & Co. Arrow Brand

2 Comments
Cluett, Peabody & Co, Arrow Collar the “Tyfold” type Three from 1903 as worn by the character Nucky Thompson in the first season of Boardwalk Empire
Scanned image of the Tyfold collar laid flat. You can print these out and use them as a pattern.
Scanned image of the Tyfold collar laid flat. You can print these out and use them as a pattern.
Scanned image of the Tyfold collar laid flat. You can print these out and use them as a pattern.
Scanned image of the Tyfold collar laid flat. You can print these out and use them as a pattern.

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UPDATE! I have found 5 different styles of advertisement for the Tyfold to be found in American newspapers in 1903, pretty well blanketing most of the USA. I’m finding Newspapers.com to be the best way to research a date for a debut of a major brand’s collar. This is especially true for a “gadget” type collar that uses a new patented feature. Click on each thumbnail to see more:

The Tyfold’s patented keyhole front feature was apparently not printed on the collar, because the Cluett Co. did not own the patent outright. According to Google Patents it was invented by Edwin F. Brown in 1902:

Also according to this small note in a 1903 newspaper, a “string” tie without a fat back band fit in the collar best: