Collar stays

Collar stays (known as collar stiffeners in Britain), are an essential addition to formal shirts. Use collar stays to prevent your collar ends from curling upwards. This look works on rockstars emerging from nightclubs in the early morning. It will not work for you.

In America, many shirts have buttons at the bottoms of the collars. This will not suit the wearing of thicker ties. Although both tie thickness and collar length have recently shortened, a medium length buttonless collar with a half-Windsor knot is timeless. Collar stays help keep everything in place.

Many formal shirts come with plastic collar stays - throw these away and get yourself a metal (or preferably a bone) pair. High-end shirtmakers give them away for free. They are not to be confused with collar pins, popular in the first half of the twentieth-century, but unusual today, which hold the two collars together and pass underneath the knot of your tie.