On maintaining a round shirt collar

Call me a nitpicker, but I cannot stand it when my shirt collars, having lived on a hangar for a little while, become squished and develop a bend on either side. Like when you put a suit in a suitcase for too long - they can get that crease on either side of the collar from being squished flat.

A half decent dry cleaner has a collar former that will return a collar to it's circular shape, but I wonder if anything like that exists for home use - How do you guys solve this issue? I wish there was a clothing valet with a heated collar former for perfectly round collars in the morning.

Anyone else have this issue?

What kind of hangar are you using? I don't really see this happening with my wood hangars. Also, are your collars fused or natural? I could see a natural collar sagging more.

I'm using round, shaped wooden hangars; the type you find in a Westin or a Sheraton - I steal lots of hotel hangars. Most of my collars have fused interfacing.

Specifically, I'm complaining about the folding that you see on the back part of the collar, and the flatness that you see on the front side of the collar. As in this hacked up diagram I've made here on a google images picture: Sorry it's so ghetto



In an interfaced shirt you see less of it, and never creasing, but the shirt tends to bend in similar ways, and I find it both uncomfortable and ugly. It rubs the neck and presses against the throat, and it just makes you look like you were hung up on the hangar yourself (in my detail obsessed opinion)

Dry cleaners have round heating elements that can return the collar to a circular shape (forgive me this is obviously a new shirt, below), and I really like that it maintains a uniform distance from the neck.



I was wondering if you might have any idea how I can reproduce that round shape at home without having to pay some dry cleaner to do it, or if there is a machine I can get that will do this, without having to shell out a grand for an ugly industrial machine that has no place in a wardrobe (especially since it has a heating element!)

Don't find your problem at all - I iron all my own shirts and do not use formers as you describe.

If you must, lay the collar band out flat on an ironing board with the 'inside' facing up. Apply iron. Get on with your day.

It's probably karma from stealing hangers.

That or your shirts being crowded together. If they have some space in between each other, this shouldn't happen imo.



Gdot said:

If you must, lay the collar band out flat on an ironing board with the 'inside' facing up. Apply iron. Get on with your day.

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Agree with this.

The merits of using starch have been debated on here. I really don't use it much at all these days but a squirt of starch before doing the above will probably assist in keeping the rounded shape of the collar. Button a button near the top once it's on the hangar, and don't squash them in your wardrobe too tightly and you should be done.

And stop stealing from hotels. It's not big or clever.