A Deep Dive on a Classically Inconspicuous Clothing Detail
Your shirt may be harboring a small design element that has a long and complicated history.
I recently went through my closet and pulled out the nine shirts shown above. As you can see, they all have button-down collars. Can you spot the other design detail that they all share?
That’s actually a trick question, because the detail I’m referring to isn’t visible from the front. Here, let me turn the shirts over so you can take another look:
As you can see, each of these shirts has a button on the back of the collar. That’s in addition to the two buttons on the front collar points. In case you’re not familiar with this sartorial detail, here’s a video slideshow that provides a closer look at all nine of the back collar buttons shown above:
I happen to be a big fan of the back collar button. It’s not a make-or-break detail that dictates my purchasing behavior, but it’s a fun little bonus that I’m always happy to encounter, like finding a pea crab in an oyster. Why do I like it so much? Here are some reasons:
The back button’s heyday was the 1950s and ’60s, so it has an old-school retro appeal.
I like knowing that an extra bit of craftsmanship was expended to create the additional buttonhole and button. It’s not exactly a luxe feature, but it nonetheless makes me want to say, “Thank you, Mr. Shirtmaker, for going the extra mile with this added detail!”
I’m a big fan of functional specificity, so of course I like the idea of an extra button in an unexpected spot (even though, as we’ll soon see, its actual functionality is somewhat questionable).
Even when the back button is there, many people either overlook it or don’t really think about it. It is classically, prototypically inconspicuous.
In fact, the back button is so totally in my wheelhouse that I can’t believe I’ve never written about it until now. And it turns out that there’s a lot more ground to cover on this topic than I expected, so let’s get started with the most basic question: Who created or invented the back collar button?