Old Collars at Brooks Brothers

[Sardou]

Speaking of collars and Brooks Brothers (see "New Collars" thread), does anyone know roughly when it was that Brooks Brothers' "Polo Collar" -- better known as the button-down -- became pretty much the American standard for dress shirts?

Sardou

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I would think sometime during the 50s or 60s.

 

[ProperRogue]

Much earlier...

Accourding to Alan Flusser in Clothes and the Man, John Brooks brought the button down collared shirt to the United States in 1900 after seeing English polo players wearing them to keep the collar from flipping up into their face.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Does anyone know roughly when it was that Brooks Brothers' ... button-down [collar] became pretty much the American standard for dress shirts?

Button-down collars were popular with Ivy League undergraduates (and practically no one else) in the 'teens and '20s. Photos from the World War I era show Edmund Wilson and F. Scott Fitzgerald wearing button-downs. In fact, Fitzgerald wore them (with Brooks Brothers suits and overcoats) all through the '20s. Until the '80s, the collar was associated with Ivy League alumni. Indeed, it was only in the Reagan era that the "preppy" buttondown became universally acceptable for business (and government) wear.

So the short answer to your question is: the 1980s.

 

[BellyTank]

There were 'round'/'club' button-down collars too- not just pointed ones.

I like the round ones with buttons-

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