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Splitting Shirt Collars

10K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  Jovan 
#1 ·
Of late, three or four of my dress shirt collars have split. Each has split on the part of the collar in the middle just behind the neck. Granted, age, wear and tear all take part of the blame. But so many at more or less the same time. Could something be amiss that I am overlooking? Thanks.
 
#9 ·
I've never heard of ironing a collar like that. I don't press the fold on my double cuffs either, though.
 
#14 ·
The wear in that spot could be related to the shirt presses at the commercial laundry. However, I agree with the others...that's a pretty typical place for a shirt collar to start to fray as it ages. As has been mentioned already, a tailor can mend the hole and flip the collar for you, if the shirt is otherwise worth salvaging.
 
#15 ·
Can they be flipped if they're not button-downs? I would think the collar stay pockets, not to mention the direction of the fusing, would be a problem.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Snow Hill Pond said:
It looks like a classic place for the collar to fray. Do you iron the collar flat, and then fold the collar back and re-iron the fold to a crisp edge? The re-ironing could hasten the fraying process if you're too heavy-handed with the iron.
When this happened to my first dress shirt(s), I assumed this was the reason and adopted the following policy:
1. when hanging shirts up to dry after washing, I flip the collars up
2. when hanging clean shirts in my closet, I flip the collars up
3. when ironing I do not iron the collars, period
4. only flip the collars down when wearing

Ten years later and I have noticed that my shirts take a lot longer to fray around the collars. That's good enough for me.

Do collars need to be ironed? I don't think so, because if you leave the collars flipped up when not wearing them the collars seem to be tight and smooth when you flip them down to wear. I have never used starch, and never will, since that seems to be trying too hard, and I believe you should not use anything on natural fibres that you would not use on your own skin (same goes for shoes). I also think that if you work in workplace where your career will be affected or your respect diminished if your shirts are not 100% perfect crisp, then it's time to find a new job.

What do you do when the collars finally do fray? Find a good tailor or seamstress and have them replace the collars with white cotton collars. You will thus have a bunch of brand-new shirts. If you don't like contrast collars on shirts, you should.
 
#18 ·
Good suggestions. Disagree with the bit about not ironing collars period though. By that same taken we shouldn't iron cuffs either (which are also prone to fraying). The only time I do that is with an OCBD, though I don't iron them at all. All the situations I'd wear an OCBD, even with a tie, are ones that don't require everything to look perfectly crisp.
 
#20 ·
Jovan said:
Disagree with the bit about not ironing collars period though. By that same taken we shouldn't iron cuffs either (which are also prone to fraying).
I don't iron cuffs, either, which I have never found necessary. I also don't wear ties with OCBDs anymore, and I think oxford shirts look better a bit rumpled. But that's personal taste!
 
#22 ·
You've made the same exact post in two different threads... how is a needle and thread going to fix a split shirt collar? It will only make it look slightly less bad, but it will still be noticeable.
 
#23 ·
I was getting this same problem, laundering them at home. I realize my error though, and have since cause the problem to abate. I was putting the shirts in the wash with the collar buttons still buttoned.
 
#24 ·
:cry: My mother used to do that with my button-down shirts when I was little. Mind you, this was before I decided I wanted to look "cool" and that was as fancy as I ever got, even for weddings.
 
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