Feel free to print and use or adapt for your own costume or sewing classes!
Additional Explanation Of Hand Sewing Stitches for Regency Reticule Project 
Additional Explanation Of Hand Sewing Stitches for Regency Reticule Project
The Cutter’s Practical Guide
Is a series of books by W. D. F. Vincent that covered tailor’s pattern drafting for all sorts of garments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
When my Costumer’s Manifesto Site was working I had a bunch of these (not all) online (and hope to do so again), but in the meantime, all the parts I posted in PDF form are still available online at assorted sites at these outside links:
the Victorian Patterns Board has all of them listed by Volume on this page.
Hathi Trust link to nicer scan of the the University of California PDF of Cutter’s Guide volume on Children’s Clothing
Hathi Trust link to the University of California PDF of The Cutter’s practical guide to cutting and making shirts, undergarments, collars, and specialty clothing for various occupations
Very good scan of the Volume on Women’s Clothing
Archive.org copy of: Vincent’s systems of cutting all kinds of tailor-made garments : part 1 : dealing with the cutting of various styles of trousers, breeches, knickers, pantaloons, leggings and gaiters, and waistcoats 1903 by Vincent, W. D. F (William D. F.) 1860-1925
Siam Costumes has a bunch of these, as well as other tailoring, costume, and needlework copyright expired pdfs at “Cutter’s Guides” pages. Click on “Pattern Guides Female” and “Pattern Guides Male” to find loads of volumes of WDF Vincent’s Cutter’s Guide, including British Military Uniforms, Clerical Dress, Lounge & Sportswear, Livery, etc.
W D F Vincent “The Cutter’s Practical Guide” Part 10 – Waistcoats (3rd Edition)
Archive.org copy of 1890 volume on Women’s Garments
Wikisource 1898 Volume 1 on Juvenile & Youth Garments
The Group, The Victorian Sweatshop Forum has a large number of the volumes available to registered members of the forum, so if you have a strong interest join and go to their Cutter’s Guide Files
The Tailor’s Handbook of Useful Information on Social, Literary, Historical, Practical and Scientific Subjects (also by W.D.F. Vincent)
About The Vincent Square (Tailor’s Ruler)
Also co-authored by W. D. F. Vincent: The sewing machine : an historical and practical exposition of the sewing machine from its inception to the present time : containing explanations showing the modern methods of garment making applied to all kinds of tailor-made garments c.1910, by Lyons, Lewis; Allen, T. W; Vincent, W. D. F. (William D. F.), 1860-1926; Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture. NcD
Resume & Portfolio Related Documents
Places to buy Detachable Collars, get them laundered, etc.
Buying Collars:
Amazon Drygoods (Predates Amazon.com to which it is not related. It is a long standing historical clothing supply store, it sells new paper and cloth ready-made collars in historical styles, collar buttons and shirt fronts. The pressed paper and laminate , and can usually last through a 3-weekend run of a college play. The collars are made on the original 1860s machinery of the Reversible Collar Company, original maker of Linene collars, a paper-cloth laminate, which Amazon Drygoods purchased in the 1980s when after the R.C. Co. and it’s successor Gibson-Lee went under after over 100 years of business. So, though these are laminate, they are actually some of the most period-correct collars you can get).
Etsy Store: Fogey Unlimited (Sells vintage and new menswear including new linen collars in vintage designs).
Historical Emporium (Reenactor Clothing, lots of cool stuff.)
Etsy Store: Hidden River Finds (Vintage/antique clothing including many early 20th Century collars).
New & Lingwood (UK company that makes menswear including Eton uniforms since 1865, still makes collars).
Premiere Designs Historic Clothing (Victorian/Edwardian historical reenactor supply, including collars.
Darcy Clothing (Has historical style collars both made like original models. and in machine washable stays stiff with no starch models).
Barker Collars (UK Sells formal wear, including bespoke (aka custom-made) collars, and has a starching service.)
Luke Eyres Specializes in making parts for all those old and fun traditional British uniforms for sports (cricket of course) and professions (clerical, legal, military) that still use styles worked out 100+ years ago. As a result, they sell styles of collar that are not available in the usual Victorian/Edwardian reenactor sites in the US. So if you need legal or clerical bands or 19th Century style military collars etc, they have the lot.
USHist.com (Sells new made Victorian collar styles to reenactors).
Vintage Dancer page on “Where to buy detachable collars”, that lists even more places.
Laundering Collars:
Wizner Dry Cleaning NYC Dry Cleaner – Dry Cleaning Specialists in Fine Garments, Rugs, Linens, Theatrical Costume, Mascot Cleaning. Also does Starched Detachable Collars!
Barker Laundry Service (UK. The folks who did Downton Abbey’s Collars.)
Live Journal posts on Starching
Fedora Lounge: Instructions for Home Starching
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.
- HathiTrust – The City of Troy and its Vicinity 1876 Arthur James Weise
- The Clothier and Furnisher at HathiTrust Magazine Volumes from 1882-1926
- Troy’s one hundred years, 1789-1889 Arthur James Weise
- The Clothier’s and Haberdasher’s Weekly at HathiTrust
Magazine volumes from 1892-1901 - The Clothier and Furnisher 1896 [Magazine] Geo. N. Lowrey Co.
- The Clothier and Furnisher 1904 [Magazine] Geo. N Lowrey Co.
- Men’s Wear at HathiTrust Magazine volumes 1905-1909
- Men’s Wear 1907 [Magazine] Fairchild Co.
- Fairchild’s Men’s Wear Directory 1907 [New York]
- Men’s Wear 1909 [Magazine] Fairchild Co.
- Men’s Wear 1910 [Magazine] Fairchild Co.
- The Clothier and Furnisher 1910 [Magazine] Geo. N Lowrey Co.
- The Shirt and Collar Industries 1916 Dept of Commerce US Govt Printing Office
- The Haberdasher 1921 [Magazine] The Haberdasher Co.
- The Haberdasher 1922 [Magazine] The Haberdasher Co.
New! Online Articles on Collars & Related Topics:
- National Museum of American History: A White Collar With a Message
- White collared : fashioning masculinity in American visual culture / by Michael John Murphy.
- Fashioning the American Man: The Arrow Collar Man, 1907 …
- Advertising the 19th Century Detachable Collar
- The Collar City
- https://hudsonmohawkgateway.org/troy-textile-factories
- https://wwd.com/eye/people/illustrator-j-c-leyendecker-lgbqt-american-masculinity-1235627608/
Library and Museum Collections for Study Related to Collars
- Arrow Collar Collection (Advertising) at Washington University St. Louis, MO, USA
- Old listing of Arrow Collar Collection at Washington University, St.Louis with lots of details on the collection.
- Under Cover: J.C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity
A Practical Guide to Makeup, by N.M. Novlyanisky, Moscow/Leningrad Izkustva (Art) Press, 1940
Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt6: a Feminine Style Woman’s Embroidered Collar
Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt5: two Masculine cut Women’s Embroidered Collars
Here are yet more drawings I made c. 1980 of my beginning collar collection. These are women’s collars that evoke the shapes of men’s Early 20th Century collars but have embroidery on them to make them less masculine looking.
Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt4: Three Soft Collars for Men
More of my drawings made c.1980.
Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt3: Two Wing Collars, the “Lido” & “Host”
More collars from my early collection drawn c.1980
