COLLAR “CENTENARY”

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 150, 21 March 1925, Page 18

COLLAR “CENTENARY”

A good deal of interest has been aroused in linen and kindrod circ.es by the news of the “centenary” of the collar The origin cf this "centenary” would appear to be in the United States, where. 100 (years ago, a blacksmith's wife —her name was. I,ord —is stated to have conceived the idea of mn'*ing collars separate from shirts, for the benefit of her husband. The professional grime of Mr. Lords apparel kept her so much at' the washtub that she devised this expedient to lessen her’ work.

However, at the risk of severing our excellent relations with tho United States, it ahs to bo said that the collar centenary seems more of a. rebound than anything else, which has ricochctted from 1750 or so Io our own day For collars first appeared about 100 vears before this date and wore.starched (though with yellow starch) like ours. Some had lace round their edges: others were nlain and. though longer, not a all unlike the Eton collar of 1925. They were expens’ve, however, rising even to £3. chieOy because of the lace on them. Tn contemporary literature there is a trace of tehir being considered at one time a peculiarly British custom. They were called “bands.” and He name has survived in the wor-l bandbox, which article or’ginal’y held the collars, such as mar he seen in great diversity in the pictures of tha Dutch seventeenth-cen-tury school.