Tag Archives: Collars and Cuffs

Menswear, Uncategorized

c. 1902-1905 Corliss, Coon & Co. Collar Catalog

This little catalog was stamped with the name of Charles Altemus, the owner of The Opera House Hat Store in Easton, Pennsylvania which he owned from around 1896 until he went bankrupt in February of 1912.

Front cover

The Opera House Hat store was a fancy haberdashery selling fine menswear especially hats. It was a thriving business as early as 1872 when it was known as Ramaley’s Opera House Hat Store, (owned and founded by Mr. Ramaley) primarily in making and selling men’s hats and fur goods. Sometime around 1896 the business passed to Mr Altemus who branched out into other men’s furnishings including collars. This catalog therefore definitively is from sometime between 1896-1912.

27 Oct 1871 Opera House Hat Store owned by “Mr. Ramaley” Fri, Oct 27, 1871 – Page 4 · The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

24 Feb 1912 Announcement of Bankruptcy Sale of The Opera House Hat Store of Charles Altemus Sat, Feb 24, 1912 – 15 · The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

However, the catalog may be able to date to a smaller window of time by comparing the prices and names of the collars to newspaper ads of the collars in it. Newspaper ads typically only advertise collars heavily within their first year of launch, while long popular collars stay in catalogs as long as people buy them. This 1900 newspaper clipping below has names of quite a few of the same collars as this catalog, and you can see the ad at this link:

Wed, Aug 22, 1900 – 6 · The Troy Messenger (Troy, Alabama) · Newspapers.com

Three other Ads from 1902 and 1903 have more of the collars from the catalog, as well as a similar style in the artwork, so 1903 is (so far) the more precise date I would guess this catalog is from:

24 Oct 1902 Corliss Coon Collars Nome Skibo Celtic and Telka Fri, Oct 24, 1902 – Page 3 · Highland Recorder (Monterey, Virginia) · Newspapers.com

5 Dec 1902 Corliss Coon Collars Lakewood, Oporto, Haldon, etc Fri, Dec 5, 1902 – Page 3 · Highland Recorder (Monterey, Virginia) · Newspapers.com

It also has a similar style to the side-images in the memorable Glencoe Collar as a Postcard from the Philippine Front ad in the December 1902 Pearson’s Magazine. [On a side note, I recently obtained a detachable cuff that had been used this way and sent from Oklahoma to Missouri in 1908!].

9 Jan 1903 Corliss, Coon Collars Ameer, Lisco, Casma, Laconia, Essex, Chandos Fri, Jan 9, 1903 – Page 2 · Staunton Spectator and Vindicator (Staunton, Virginia) · Newspapers.com

However there is an equally good argument for 1905 as the date, as there is an ad that mentions more of the collars from the catalog, although it is primarily pushing the “Four Ply Fold” feature rather than “New” collars:

17 Mar 1905 Corliss, Coon Collar “Basil” Ad illustrating 4 Ply Fold Fri, Mar 17, 1905 – Page 5 · St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

Comparing the central “Correct Dress Chart” with similar charts in The Haberdasher, The Sartorial Art Journal, etc. would most likely give a definitive year so if anyone cares to go to the Library of Congress to check for me, I’ll be happy to alter my judgement on this if I get further info!

Back Cover

Costume History, Menswear

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

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:

Library and Museum Collections for Study Related to Collars

Costume History

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.

The first vintage celluloid-covered collar box I ever purchased with some of the women’s collars I had collected by the early 1980s.
Ladies Floral Embroidered Collar, with a lock front. The fabric is lighter than is standard for a man’s collar, with no internal stiffening in between the layers of the band. The collar section is a single layer of thin material with an embroidered edge. All is starched to a rigidity that allows it to appear to be made of heavy stiff paper.
When closed, it makes a near tube shape.
Note the extra fabric at left. This “lock front” cut allows the tube to stay rigid at front with a single stud, preventing a pinch at the neck.
Ladies Embroidered Dot Collar with a lock front, very similar to the above but with two layers on the collar part. The dots are satin stitched.
Costume History, Menswear

Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt4: Three Soft Collars for Men

More of my drawings made c.1980.

Cluett, Peabody & Co. Inc., Aratex, “Lane”
Cluett, Peabody & Co. Inc., Aratex, “Lane”
Cluett, Peabody & Co. Inc., Aratex, “Lane”
Cluett, Peabody & Co. Inc., Aratex, “Lane”
Cluett, Peabody & Co. Inc., Aratex, “Lane”
No Name Soft Collar
No Name Soft Collar
No Name Soft Collar
Arrow Cluett Peabody & Co. Inc, “Pell” Roll-Front, Light Weight Collar
Arrow Cluett Peabody & Co. Inc, “Pell” Roll-Front, Light Weight Collar
Arrow Cluett Peabody & Co. Inc, “Pell” Roll-Front, Light Weight Collar
Costume History, Menswear

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

Arrow-De Luxe “Lido”, a wing collar with an unusual front notch.
Earle & Wilson “Host” wing collar, one of the most common wing collars to find.
Costume History, Menswear

Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt2: Triangle “Plaza” Club Collar with Lock front

So, continuing with the drawings I made back c.1978-80 of my collar collection, here is another example.

Photo of another club collar, the Triangle "Plaza" Collar.
Another club collar, the Triangle “Plaza” Collar.
  • Triangle Plaza Collar
  • Triangle Plaza Collar
  • Triangle Plaza Collar
  • Triangle Plaza Collar
  • Triangle Plaza Collar
Triangle “Plaza” Lock Front Club Collar
Spread the images so that the front buttonholes are 1/4″ more than your neck measurement then connect the lines and move the back button hole equidistant from the two front ones. Add seam allowances and sew together normally.
Costume History, Menswear

Hand Drawn Collar patterns of Early 20th Century Detachable Collars Pt1: Four Wing Collars and a club Collar, the Ashbourne-2

One of the things that has weirdly defined my life is that pretty much since I went to college and first got serious about costuming I have been working on writing a costume book. It never gets finished, but I make lots of components for it. In the 1990s this morphed into The Costumers Manifesto web site, but back around the late 1970s and early 1980s it was just a few random things that interested me. Detachable hard collars have always had a fascination for me and so in those pre-Internet and pre-home printer/scanner/copier days I set out to make life size drawings to be used as patterns of my then small collar collection (back when it still fit in a single large cookie tin) in imitation of my hero Janet Arnold. These were laboriously hand drawn with a Rapidograph, a high maintenance technical pen that is the ancestor of my now favorite Signo Uniball pens.

My collar collection c. 1983
Diagram of the ends of 4 types of early 20th Century wing collars, suitable for using to make patterns.
Ashbourne-2 Collar
Ashbourne-2 Collar Drawing

The idea with all these is that since both sides of the collar are identical, you can use them to form a pattern that you can lengthen to the needed size so long as you have the basic shape. In all cases seam allowance must be added!

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, Menswear

Parsons & Parsons Co. Celluloid Collar Pamphlets, Probably 1926 or later

I recently purchased these pamphlets showing celluloid collars. They show the available collar brand varieties of the Parsons & Parsons Company’s three sub-brands in a given year. I have been hunting through Newspapers.com trying to work out the year of these pamphlets. I have tentatively described them as post 1926 since I own one of the collars, a Par Brand, Amherst collar which has a 1926 patent date on it.

Kant Krack Collars Pamphlet pg 1