In September we examined the male shirt; here we focus on the collars and neckties that completed the neckline. Being close to the face, these were conspicuous items, subject to fashion and often making a personal statement about the wearer.

Neckwear first became significant when the shirt became a major component of the newly-established suit of clothes in the 1600s. In 1663 Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: “This morning, dressing myself and wanting a band, I found all my bands that were newly made clean, so ill-smoothed that I crumpled them and flung them all on the ground and was angry with Jane.” A ‘band’ was a general term for collar; the early collar that replaced ruffs initially termed a ‘falling band’. Fashioned from fine linen edged with lace or embroidery, bands were very wide by the 1630s but as hair grew longer, the fabric shifted to the front, falling into folds and sometimes tied with ribbon. Before long, the collar was itself replaced by a separate length of linen and lace knotted at the throat: the neck-cloth or cravat. Long cravats dominated early-Georgian fashion but by the 1740s younger men favoured the stock, a made-up lawn or muslin neck-cloth attached to a stiffened band that fastened behind the neck. Stocks were worn over the collar (a deep-standing neckband attached to the shirt) but were shorter than cravats, revealing the shirt front and encouraging decorative frills and stock buckles. From the 1780s cravats re-entered fashion, squares of fresh white muslin or lawn swathed around the collar becoming a major preoccupation for the Regency ‘dandy.’

In the early-1800s a high white collar and white or black cravat teamed with a dark coat created a striking effect. White neckwear was required for evening, but otherwise flamboyant coloured silk neckties grew popular c1820s-1840s. By then, the collar was separate from the shirt and heavily starched, except for informal wear. In about 1840 ‘necktie’ became the usual term, different tie arrangements acquiring various names as bows and knots became increasingly important. The 1850s broad necktie tied in a flat bow gave way to new styles during the 1860s, including smart cravats secured with a stick pin, ‘artistic’ individuals often adopting flowing silk scarves. During the 1870s a ready-made knotted ‘four-in-hand’ tie (resembling modern ties) came into vogue and in the late-1880s and 1890s, heavily-starched shirt collars grew very tall, a variant the formal winged collar, usually accessorised with a bow tie. The early-1900s favoured turned-down collars, the use of starch declining in the 1910s, but still used by ‘white collar’ workers. Between the wars patterned and coloured silk ties were all the rage and from the 1930s collars were often attached to shirts, although separate collars only died out after the 1960s. A collar and tie were usual for work and formal wear, but open-necked shirts grew acceptable for weekends in the 1930s.