This article is from The Gastonia [North Carolina] Gazette for Sunday, November 7, 1965 and was re-posted on AAT by member Charles Dana. I have my own thoughts on both the back collar button and locker loop that I will be sharing in an upcoming post.
Two simple things that practically go unnoticed on some men’s shirts are causing monumental concern in the apparel industry. A button and loop on the back side of traditional shirts have many producers losing sleep and pacing the floor. REASON: To leave them on or take them off.
For the past decade, a rear collar button and a hanger loop have become standard equipment on shirts styled in the traditional pattern. They have become accepted, taken for granted, and ignored. But now comes along one of the major traditional shirt houses in the nation and says buttons and loops will cease to be on their future models.
The stir this revelation caused was akin to jamming the panic button. Contemporary firms were taken by surprise, uncertain if this was a right or wrong move. Many are still trying to decide. Gant shirtmakers, the best-known traditional shirtmaker in America, touched off the wave of restlessness. This would seem reasonable since the firm pioneered in the field of button-down collars, back-side buttons, loops, and box pleats; plus the tapered waist. Gant led and others followed. But following the leader doesn’t come so easily when a loss of business is a likely possibility. The big question coming to mind with manufacturers was simply this: ‘How will the young man react? Since this kind of business is directly pitched at the collegiate and high school set, such a query had to be resolved, else what appears to be a good move could easily turn into a bad move.
“What would be the reaction to a change? In the Carolinas, often called the Island of Natural Shoulder History, removal of both the button and loop wouldn’t cause a ripple. For, as some store men say, nobody is looking for either one any more. Samplings around the two states of stores reveal that a general feeling of ‘not important’ is being attached to both horns of the dilemma. Tommy Frederick, furnishings manager at Matthews-Belk Co., who cut his teeth on Ivy League clothes, opines: ‘I don’t think the removal of either or both will make or break a sale. If the shirt has color, fabric, name, and quality, it will sell. This feeling was reflected in areas from Raleigh, a hotbed of traditionalism, to Charleston, S. C. The consensus of opinion was that both were first introduced as fads and this has since run its course. At the same time some stores point out that while the button serves no real purpose, the loop does. You can hang up a shirt by it. So…retailers would prefer keeping the loop.
Men who have made studies in this area of apparel say the change was inevitable. Labor costs for the two operations run into six figures for many companies. Dropping them could direct attention to other areas of shirts that need improvements–like longer tails, better and more secure buttons…. The only objections to removal came from the high school set that goes steady. It seems that a boy wearing a shirt unbuttoned at the back is going steady. That means hands off.
