THE JOURNAL
From left: Casablanca AW23. Photograph by Launchmetrics Spotlight. Dries Van Noten AW23. Photograph by Mr Daniele Oberrauch/Launchmetrics Spotlight. BODE AW23. Photograph courtesy of BODE. AMI PARIS AW23. Photography by Mr Isidore Montag/Launchmetrics Spotlight
Sometimes, small really is mighty. Such is the case with collars this autumn. If, until recently, they have been a crucial but anonymous element of any shirting, now is the time for this smallest of details to shout a little louder. Brace yourself: the conversation-starting collar has arrived.
These go across everything from outerwear (such as a shearling jacket from AMI PARIS that comes with an expansively oversized collar) to updates on eveningwear and even everyday shirting – whether retro at Casablanca, louche at Dries Van Noten or modern bohemian at BODE.
There have been style stirrings around celebrity men’s necks for a while. The pussybow shirts worn by Mr Cillian Murphy in his promotional tour for Oppenheimer, and the more foppish styles adopted by Mr Harry Styles as part of his ongoing tribute to the style of Sir Elton John, sit at the further edges of the look. But we’ve seen it in less extreme variations in Mr Sam Riley’s open-collar styles at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and in a lot of outfits worn by the dandyish playwright Mr Jeremy O Harris. Notable collars have also been seen on the catwalk before, at brands including Wales Bonner, KENZO and Lemaire.
“The collar is having to work a bit harder for its money”
The fact that a collared shirt is such a given in most men’s wardrobes is part of what makes this detail feel new – it’s shining a light on something previously neglected. “The shirt is the most standard baseline item [in a wardrobe],” says Mr Stephen Doig, men’s style editor at The Telegraph. “[A statement collar] gives it a little bit of oomph and a little bit of specialness.”
Shirting is, of course, central to recent changes in how we dress – with many people working from home for at least part of the working week, and no longer requiring the smart shirt central to many office dress codes. Adjusting to this shift, brands that work in tailoring are thinking of new ways to make the category appealing.
“We’re not wearing shirts so much, and the pandemic accelerated that trend,” Doig says. “The collar has become somewhat redundant so it’s having to work a bit harder for its money.”
In fact, these collars could be seen as part of a wider trend – one that makes tailoring less traditional and more experimental. “Collars becoming more fun and playful feels like an extension of suits becoming more fun,” says Mr Clayton Chambers, the writer behind menswear newsletter Sprezza. “If you look at the recent tailoring landscape, certain brands are putting their own unique flare to dressing up, and collars are part of that family.”
While we might now see them as immovable cornerstone of menswear, collars have actually long been subject to trends, and the influence of style icons of their day. According to the Museum of Modern Art, Lord Byron made the modern shirt collar happen by putting the points against the collarbone rather than wrapping them around the neck. The Duke of Windsor, meanwhile, popularised the attached collar in the 1920s. By the 1950s, the collar was already a signal.
In his book Status And Culture, Mr W David Marx relays an anecdote about painter Ms Virginia Packard’s portrait of a young wealthy teenager, and his reaction to it. “New England prep schoolers of the era all wore Oxford-cloth dress shirts with button-down collars,” Marx writes. “He was mortified that this townie artist was moments away from sealing an unspeakable sartorial faux pas into his permanent portrait.”
Add 20 or so years, and supersized collars were the flex in the 1970s. In Saturday Night Fever (1977), a disco-bound Mr John Travolta makes sure his are pride of place over that famous white suit.
In 2023, collars still have an ability to signal, of course – but the arrival of the statement collar also reflects a different kind of change in modern fashion: the way that menswear is borrowing from quirks and decoration of womenswear.
“There are not that many times when you can use the word ‘whimsical’ in menswear”
“There are not that many times when you can use the word ‘whimsical’ in menswear, and I feel like there’s something whimsy about [these collars],” says Mr Gary Armstrong, a stylist and editor of sports and fashion magazine CircleZeroEight. “It’s kind of playful, a bit silly.
“In general, we’re in a genreless moment with menswear,” Chambers says. “How we identify ourselves creatively and stylistically is more fluid than ever, creating a subjectivity to what we wear.”
Armstrong currently favours a white broderie anglaise shirt by Alexander McQueen with a scalloped collar. He says this is a way to approach the trend as a beginner. “You could do something where it’s beaded, but it’s a white shirt and the beads are white,” he says. “It’s more [about the] detail than a big showstopper.”
With beading, printing and detail, these collars are also able to bring a craft-focused feel to an item – a quality that we are craving at the moment. “I would say, as an overall feeling, there’s an artisanal vibe,” Armstrong says. “I think people want to feel like that. If they’re buying something that they’re spending money on, it needs to be something special.”
Because the surface area is small, collars could be seen as an ideal way to experiment where you might not otherwise. In fact, they’re much easier to embrace than an all-guns-blazing style change. “You could wear a kind of a simple outfit, but if you’ve got a shirt that has some kind of embellishment on the collar, that’s the statement you make,” Armstrong says. He adds that they work as a way to elevate evening dressing without wearing a suit.
It’s interesting to note that such a small detail can be quietly radical, too. “If you think about men’s formal wardrobes, the collar is the signifier, that’s what makes it a formal thing,” Doig says. “This is making it a bit playful and sensual, subverting that heteronormative captain of industry aesthetic.” Collars this season? They might be small, but they sure have a lot to say.