From an Associated Press story dated March 27:
It might have been expected, what with the decline of the mustache and the watch chain, that the separate shirt collar also would go.
"For all practical purposes the separate collar is no longer a part of the American scene," said Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. today in announcing it was dropping the line after 60 years.
Cluett-Peabody & Co., another large manufacturer, declined comment on its competitor's announcement.
Phillips-Van Heusen was certain of its course.
"For several years," said a spokesman, "the company has been making separate shirt collars strictly as a service to the few who still wear them."
The company said it was saddened over what it believed to be the passing of an era in the men's wear field, but "demand has diminished to the point where the cost of continuing this service is prohibitive."
The collar was worn widely during the turn of the century, but it was in the dashing Twenties that it reached a peak of popularity.
In its more proper styles it made thin men look very refined but fat men rather confined. It wasn't as comfortable as it was neat, but it always was very distinguished.
Phillips-Van Heusen says the separate collar has, in recent years, been almost wholly supplanted by the collar-attached shirt. In 1924 it sold 24 million a year, in 1961 just 18,000.
Illustration from 1919 Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog.
* "The Shirt and Collar Industries" (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1916): @
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