Questions about collar stays and socks

Just two quick simple questions:

Is there any value in sterling silver collar stays ? I have brass and plastic ones.

Are wool/nylon dress socks preferable to cotton/nylon dress socks?

Thanks, I appreciate the advice.

Don't really know about the socks...

but as to the collar stays, my answer is no. The sterling silver ones cost more, but you lose them just as easily. I say just buy a box of the plastic ones and use 'em till you lose 'em. I picked up a replacement box recently at Macy's for about $5. They work just fine.

Bradford

Just two quick simple questions:

Is there any value in sterling silver collar stays ? I have brass and plastic ones.

Are wool/nylon dress socks preferable to cotton/nylon dress socks?

Thanks, I appreciate the advice.

Click to expand...

Huh.... you're starting to sound eriely familiar to that Josh guy who used to post on ModernMan.

Huh.... you're starting to sound eriely familiar to that Josh guy who used to post on ModernMan.

Click to expand...

I can say on my honor that I am not "that Josh guy who used to post on ModernMan." I have an account on ModernMan and my username is gregory as well.

Huh.... you're starting to sound eriely familiar to that Josh guy who used to post on ModernMan.

Click to expand...

Ouch. The kiss of death. I suspect that the 'Shooman' over at Andy's board will soon be the new Josh5414.

Just two quick simple questions:

Is there any value in sterling silver collar stays ? I have brass and plastic ones.

Click to expand...

When we had this debate over at MM forums the consensus was that glass collar stays are the best... Gregory, look into it.

Carlo Franco shirts come with mother of pearl collar stays, and I believe they sell them sans shirt as well. I like the Tyrwhitt brass stays. Most of the time I just use the various Brooks Brothers plastic stays I've picked up over the years.

I use the plastic collar stays for the simple reason that I have a habit of forgetting to take them out when sending the shirts to be cleaned. Although the cleaners that I am currently using take them out and actually return them to me with the shirts, I have lost so many in the past.
As for the socks, just out of habit, I have always purchased cotton/nylon socks and continue to do so even now.

Classic

IMO, wool socks are far superior to cotton socks. The primary reason for this is that the wool wicks moisture away from the foot much more efficiently than does cotton; as a result, your feet stay much drier with wool socks than with cotton socks. As an experiment, wear a pair of wool socks one day, and when you take off your shoes and socks at the end of the day, feel your socks and then your feet. My guess is that both will feel dry. The next day, do the same with cotton socks. At the end of the day, both the socks and your feet will feel damp/clammy.

The difference between wool and cotton is why, before the rise of miracle fabrics, "technical" gear was made of wool. The variance in wicking is one key difference. A second is that wool retains the majority of its insulating abilities when wet, whereas cotton does not.

I only wear wool socks, except for sporting events, when I use high-wicking synthetics. For the price, I think the Gold-Toe Windsor wool socks are a great deal, particularly when they are on sale at department stores, often for around $5.50 or $6.00 a pair; they are very durable and can be machine washed and dried. I buy a bunch of the same color (particularly the reddish-brown), and I don't really have to worry about matching pairs after they've been washed. The reddish-brown goes really well with most brown shoes. (Against standard fashion advice, I tend to match my socks to my shoes rather than to my pants.)

Unfortunately, cotton seems to be the preferred sock material these days; my guess is that this is a result of the years of marketing by the cotton industry, and traditional fears about machine washing wool. (Why are virtually all sports socks made of cotton, which is terrible in this application? -- one exception the SmartWool brand.) As such, wool socks in patterns are hard to find, whereas patterned cotton socks are readily available.

I also like the Pantherella, Polo Purple Label, Brooks Brothers Merino, Dore-Dore, and Faconnable wool socks that I've run across on sale. Sierra Trading Post often has the Pantherella and sometimes the Dore-Dore socks on sale.

Also, cashmere socks are a total extravagence, since the soft cashmere wool wears out really quickly. That being said, I picked up some very fine/thin Silk/Cashmere Dore-Dore's on Sierra a couple of years ago, and they are beautiful, though still pretty fragile.

I too prefer wool socks, but unlike shoefan, insist on matching my socks to my pants. This makes wearing wool socks very difficult unless I'm wearing a black or navy suit, because, as shoefan stated, patterned wool socks (i.e. socks that can be easily matched to grey or brown pants) are almost non-existant. Accordingly, I wear cotton socks much of the time.

Hi All.

Fairly new around these parts.  Great board.

Allow me to weigh in on the socks/stays issue.

1) Wool socks dont fade as fast as the cotton ones do after washings.  (of course if you get cotton blends that prolongs the fading but 100% cottons fade and rather quickly.)  As far as heat and moving the moisture away from the foot dont you agree that naturally the wool socks cause more perspiration that the cottons would?

2) With the stays issue, I used to have the plastic ones, which definately do the job, however I recently had one melted to a collar when they pressed the shirt without removing it from the shirt like they usually do.  Instead what I did was buy a velvet envelope of assorted sized brass stays for 9 bucks and focus on putting them back into the place that they belong in the envelope. The downside to the BB stays is that they generally are long and wouldnt work in a shorter collar.


Just my feeling.

JJF

I use plastic. Have a huge stash accumulated over the years...I find brass makes the collar feel too stiff to me.

Can't wear wool socks, or anything wool against my skin. Feels too scratchy to me.