Even Menswear Can Be Dangerous — Those Edwardian Collars
Edwardian men liked their detachable collars. The point was, that you didn’t have to change your shirt every day. It made it look like you had a much larger wardrobe and saved money on laundering.
Unfortunately. these collars caused all kinds of problems. These problems only got worse in the 1870s.
The Fashion For Stiff Collars
Gentlemen wore their collars very stiff. Originally, these collars were made of starched linen or cotton but this would wilt fairly quickly. An early solution was to put stiff paper inside the collar.
Then, somebody invented celluloid. This plastic appeared to be the perfect material to make a nice stand up collar. Unfortunately, it came with a couple of, shall we say, issues.
Choking For Fashion
The first problem was that these collars became very high and very stiff indeed. They were made out of a material that had basically no give in it. A number of gentlemen literally choked to death on her own collars.
