Back Collar Buttons, Locker Loops, & Me

This week as promised I am back to follow up with my personal opinion on back collar buttons and locker loops. Charles Dana (Thanks, Charles!) who uncovered last weeks newspaper article also dropped some research in the comment section of last week’s post that had me momentarily rethinking my opinion. I also learned a bit of history on locker loops on Reddit’s Navy Blazer (You should visit if you like trad/ivy forum discussions).

Let’s start with the easier of the two, locker loops. I am a big fan. As someone who has spent a lot of time in the gym I have always loved and used the locker loop to hang my shirt in my gym locker. I have even gone as far as adding them to my non-OCBD shirts from Proper cloth (see above). I had assumed that Gant was the first to add these to their shirts which targeted college students with limited locker space back in the 60s. It turns out that locker loops like many aspects of our clothing most likely had their roots in the military.

_{While there isn’t hard evidence to prove this, many sources claim that east coast sailors and the U.S. Navy were the first to incorporate locker loops into their uniforms. Back then, hangers weren’t as prevalent as they are today, and storage space on ships was (and sometimes still is) notoriously small. To help save room, these loops were added onto the garments of sailors to hang onto pegs or hooks located inside of storage lockers. The loops also help to prevent wrinkles.} ^{(https://reviewed.usatoday.com/style/features/history-button-down-shirt-locker-loops)}

Now back to the back collar button. While Charles may have posted some advertising that never spoke to the utilitarian function of the back collar button. I still think that it is utilitarian. Here is why. For the life of me I can’t figure out why someone would suggest adding the back button if it was not for the reason that I am thinking. It’s not to keep your tie straight either. That doesn’t make sense to me either. My theory is that it was added to keep the back of the collar from riding up.

Nothing illustrates a point like a picture. Notice how the back of the collar rides up on the top OCBD. Now look at the university stripe OCBD below with the back collar button. See how the back button keeps it in place. Now sure ironing them will help keep them in place, but some of my older OCBDs collars will still ride up over the course of the day even after being ironed.

I will always prefer a locker loop, but back collar button or no back collar button is not a deal breaker for me. I do however think that the back collar button is more than decoration. I spoke about how things like this happen in the Pre-Distressed Ivy post, but this is another example of fad turned trend turned classic detail. I like how the meaning of these details get lost over time only to be decoded again somewhere down the road.