The History of the Collar Box

Robin @ the Primitive Hutch wanted to know more about

the Collar Box from my Monday Montage.



I decided to do a post for everyone regarding the

history of these unique boxes.

Men's historical fashion albeit is not as familiar to most folks

as women's fashion of the last 1800's to early 1900's.

Clothing was hand made back then,

which included men's shirts, collars and cuffs.

Because clothing was hand made, that made it more expensive.

Men would wear undershirts to protect their dress shirts,

however the places that had the most body contact in a shirt

were at the collar and cuff.

Thus these were added to preserve a shirt in the places

 that an undershirt did not protect.

It was much more cost efficient to purchase just a collar and a set of cuffs

 then to purchase the entire shirt with them on.

Thus the need for the collar box. 

By removing the collar and cuffs to wash the shirt,

made it possible to save on the expense of buying these items

because all you had to do was to purchase a new shirt

and re-button the collar and cuffs to the new shirt.

Collar Boxes were used to keep the collar and cuffs

from getting dirty when not being used.

These boxes were invented around the 1860's.

Once factories were able to mass produce clothing,

shirts were less expensive and more available.

Thus it was no longer necessary to separate

 the collar and cuffs anymore,

and by the 1930's these types of shirts were no longer made....

neither were the collar boxes.

We take so many things for granted nowadays.

Washing machines, dry cleaners...

these are just a few of the things

that our fore-fathers and fore-mothers

did not have.

Thank you for the comment Robin,

and I hope this answered your question.

If anyone else would like to know more about any of

the antiques I feature, just let me know.

I would be happy to tell you more about them.

Warm Blessings to all

Janice