# Loop on back of shirt



## tripreed (Dec 8, 2005)

I'm sure this has been addressed before, and I check the archives if the search feature worked, but I was wondering what that loop is on the back of a number of button-up shirts? Something I've always wondered, thanks.


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## Will (Jun 15, 2004)

The locker loop was placed there so you could hang your shirt on a hook in your gym locker. 



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Fortuna elegantes adiuvit.


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## tripreed (Dec 8, 2005)

OK, thanks, I had assumed it might be for something like that, but wasn't sure. Does anyone know when it was added and by whom, or why it is present on some shirts but not others? Thanks.


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## bigCat (Jun 10, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by Will_
> 
> The locker loop was placed there so you could hang your shirt on a hook in your gym locker.


Just a note that although that (what Will posted) is the intent, doesn't mean that one should do it. The shirt will last longer and look better if you hang it on a hanger.

It think it's a trademark of US made button down oxford shirts. It has to do with college life on the eastern seabord [8D].


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## pendennis (Oct 6, 2005)

They've been on shirts since at least the early 1960's. I started wearing BD oxfords in 1960, and they were on them at the time.

As a humorous(?) aside, girls used to grab the loops and yank them off the shirts of guys they thought were cute.

Dennis
If you wish to control the future, then create it.
Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae


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## mpcsb (Jan 1, 2005)

Were't they also called "fruit loops" at one time?


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## xcubbies (Jul 31, 2005)

And, in the same general area, I recall that some of my shirts in the '60s had a third button-down button on the back of the collar, just above the loop.


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## pendennis (Oct 6, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by xcubbies_
> 
> And, in the same general area, I recall that some of my shirts in the '60s had a third button-down button on the back of the collar, just above the loop.


Yes, there was a third button. It kept the tie from showing beneath the back of the collar.

The loops were called "fruit loops" a little later, somewhere around 1966, or so.

Dennis
If you wish to control the future, then create it.
Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae


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## stuman (Oct 6, 2005)

Yes, I remember those loops. In fact, back in my high school in the 1960s, kids would try to pull them off and sometimes rip your shirt.


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## Rocker (Oct 29, 2004)

I know Lands' End button downs had the loops from at least 1982 through 1997. I haven't bought one since '97 or so - don't know if they got rid of them on their button down models.


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

Gentlemen


Believe it or not, these were referred to as Fairy Loops, in New England.
Yes, a chickie would yank the loop off a guy, why I dont know.
But, again, Fairy Loop is what this was called

Nice day gents

Jimmy


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

I lost a few shirts to the 'fairy loop' snatch and rip years later some fool saw what he thought was a great big one and pulled it. It was a neck lanyard with my Colt New Service on the other end. Poor tourist almost fainted when I turned around with it in my S.D.Meyers crossdraw


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## KenCPollock (Dec 20, 2003)

Those things drove meet nuts when I was a part-time salesman at the Madison Shop of Rubenstein Brothers' in New Orleans in the early 1960's. Locker loops were a trademark of Gant shirts, most of which were sold under private label. The other big Ivy League button-down makers, Sero, Wren, Creighton and Eagle did not have the loops at first. At Rubenstein's, however, we carried the Gant label. 
Locker loops were a "hot" item, but most of the teen-age girls who came in to buy shirts for their boyfriends did not know or refused to believe me when I said that that they were on all Gant shirts. Therefore, they insisted on tearing the packaging apart to make sure it was there. Poor me had to try to put them back together again.
Gant was easily recognizable by the loop; J. Press and Eagle by the pocket flap and Brooks by the absence of any pocket at all.


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## Andy (Aug 25, 2002)

tripreed:

Sorry I'm a little late, but you got all the right information.

This from The Encyclopedia of Men's Clothes:

The Locker Loop:

Locker Loop is an extra fabric ring on the high center back on shirts. Usually where the pleat meets the yoke. All the original Brooks Brothers oxford button downs had this feature, which became a basic in the Ivy League style. This is more common on sports or oxford button-down collar shirts. The purpose was to hang your shirt, in a locker, by the loop so that it wouldnâ€™t wrinkle.

Andy


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## crazyquik (Jun 8, 2005)

When I was in middle school (10 years ago) they were called '*** Tags' and not well accepted.

Many of my buttondowns growing up had the 3rd button in the back. Can I still get these? Gittman, Mercer, anyone?

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Beware of showroom sales-fever reasoning: i.e., "for $20 . . ." Once you're home, how little you paid is forgotten; how good you look in it is all that matters.


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## romafan (Apr 29, 2005)

> quote:_Originally posted by crazyquik_
> 
> When I was in middle school (10 years ago) they were called '*** Tags' and not well accepted.
> 
> ...


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## KenCPollock (Dec 20, 2003)

> quote:_Originally posted by Andy_
> 
> tripreed:
> This from The Encyclopedia of Men's Clothes:
> ...


Interesting, but not correct. Brooks shirts did NOT have locker loops. Gant shirtmakers was the first.


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

Gentlemen

Ken, you are right.
Gant, Sero, Eagle, and Troy all did the fairy loops.
And Creighton.
One time or another.
Troy masde for a lot of others.
They did their own shirts in Troy.
Wells and Coverly, an old Troy establishment carried their own shirts, but labelled Troy shirtmakers.
Little did I know what wonderful shirts Troy were.
I use to run from my home town shirts, and bought in NYC, Sulka for instance.
Who, sometimes, had their shirts done by Troy!!
Anyway, my dear friend, good to see you every now and then.
You have a nice day


Jimmy


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## young guy (Jan 6, 2005)

Curious, can we still say "***-tag" and "fairy-loop"?
Don't want to offend, I've just never heard those terms, nor seen a shirt with one of those loop-things.


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## Bradford (Dec 10, 2004)

> quote:_Originally posted by young guy_
> 
> Curious, can we still say "***-tag" and "fairy-loop"?
> Don't want to offend, I've just never heard those terms, nor seen a shirt with one of those loop-things.


Not on most college campuses or in polite society.

I think locker loop might be a better term to use.


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