Is the secret to a better cheap shirt collar roll… *gasp*… starch?

[GoClick]

Before you sound off about how starch ruins shirts, I know that, hear me out.

I know starch is "bad". I'm not talking about starching my custom shirts here, they come with the collars made properly in the first place and they already look right.

What I mean is typical OTR shirts. The sort I buy to wear on Saturdays to a friend's house when I suspect someone might fling nacho cheese on me. Those $30 shirts you don't actually like, but wear because you can't risk something better. You still want to look "sharp"… but the plackets always sag and the collar folds outward and looks limp and sad.

I've found that with those shirts I can starch the heck out of the placket (and whatever the other side is called) from the 2nd button up, and the collar from the button to about 1/3 of the way towards the back. Then the collar says erect (shut up) because the front of the shirt is stiffer, and the collar doesn't flop out. The whole effect is much more vertical and rakish.

I don't really care if the life of the shirt is shorter because they're always taken out by nacho cheese, or grass stains before their time anyways.

Have you tried this on your cheap shirts?

 

[mcbrown]

Isn't the attempt to coax "good" collar roll out of a cheap shirt or "good" lapel roll out of a cheap suit sort of like trying to make your Civic look faster by putting on a non-functional hood scoop?

 

[Grammaton Cleric]

News flash: $30 button downs don't make you look 'sharp', no matter how much you starch'em.

 

[GoClick]

News flash: $30 button downs don't make you look 'sharp', no matter how much you starch'em.

Hah, yeah but 5 year olds flinging guacamole are just too dangerous for fine goods.

 

[GoClick]

Isn't the attempt to coax "good" collar roll out of a cheap shirt or "good" lapel roll out of a cheap suit sort of like trying to make your Civic look faster by putting on a non-functional hood scoop?

How derd ya'll know mer Cibic has hertweels flames on it? I gert dat at WAAALLmart.

 

[Smudge]



Hah, yeah but 5 year olds flinging guacamole are just too dangerous for fine goods.

QFT

 

[gettoasty]

A good standard collar stay recommendation then anyone?

 

[Poloboy]

I do not understand the dislike for starch in these forums.
I have all of my dress and casual shirts laundered with extra heavy starch, and have never had any problems with excessive wear. All dress shirts shirts are custom made, using high thread
Count 2 ply cottons. To me, any dress shirt that is not heavily starched, looks like crap.
Anyone that thinks they can just iron a dressshirt, and put collar stays in, and think they
Look good, is only making a fool of themselves. I have seen far to may photos of people
Wearing ties with unstarched collars, and I find it hard to believe they think they look good.

 

[GoClick]

I do not understand the dislike for starch in these forums…
…I have all of my dress and casual shirts laundered with extra heavy starch, and have never had any problems with excessive wear.

I kind of don't wonder about that myself… back in the old days people were thrifty and they starched. I just can't imagine my grandmother who's 94 and learned to run her household in the great depression having ever starched any of my grandpa's work shirts if it reduced the service life. My grandma is thrifty to the point of madness.

That said I still don't starch my custom shirts out of fear, I just get them made with very rigid fused collars and cuffs and use brass stays. My shirts tend to die young because my unusually abrasive stubble tends to sand the collar into oblivion.

 

[jamesny]

Wow I remember my mother used to do this back in the day. It does tend to make the shirts look more pressed longer.. particularly for cotton dress shirts.

 

[Harold falcon]

I use a light amount of starch on my shirts. I iron them myself and am otherwise very gentle with them.

 

[Butler]



I do not understand the dislike for starch in these forums.
I have all of my dress and casual shirts laundered with extra heavy starch, and have never had any problems with excessive wear. All dress shirts shirts are custom made, using high thread
Count 2 ply cottons. To me, any dress shirt that is not heavily starched, looks like crap.
Anyone that thinks they can just iron a dressshirt, and put collar stays in, and think they
Look good, is only making a fool of themselves. I have seen far to may photos of people
Wearing ties with unstarched collars, and I find it hard to believe they think they look good.

Starch for bespoke - always!




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

By lifestylemanager at 2011-02-13