The polo button down is almost becoming your own moon landing type conspiracy fxhy!

ooey - its always sounded like a nice story to me - but as a shirt wearer the story of creation doesn't add up. Think of it ooey - you are a cloteh sbloke. You have a shirt, one of those new fangled ones with an ATTACHED collar.

It has long peaks.

You wear it playing some fast sport - the long peaks flap up into your face, tickling your beard or something. 

Your solution? - get shorter peaks on collar, nope - get collarless shirt -nope, get round /club collars on shirt - nope, sew peak to shirt invisibly - nope  -

All the above are too easy and simple.

You decide the best solution is to get someone to make a button hole, with intricate handsewing remember, on the itty bitty end of the peak and then sew a button on shirt  - cant get a much more complicated unnecessary solution than that.

I just don't buy the story.

Its not a big deal - but then it makes you think about the Ivy University connection stories.

Is that a detachable collar?

Actually if it was on a removable collar it starts to make more sense to me to have buttons and buttonholes.

But why not use studs as most shirts used back then anyway to do up.

The way this is going this could become my lifes work.

You reckon theres a PhD in it?

Last edited by fxh (2013-01-18 01:38:17)

Jim do I have a potential fellow sKeptic on my journey to unravel the origins of the button down.

I have an old LE Poly Cotton** I wear around the house doing jobs like now putting shelves. I also happen to have a "Stanley" steel-tape measure with me.

My scientific calculations are that it would take a 6.5" peak to flap to the corner of my eye and around 7.5 - 8 inched to run any risk of flipping into my eye.

I was unable to convince my attractive research assistant to get a fan and turn it on high to blow collar in a real life simulation.^^^

** A good poly /cotton blend is best for pottering around shirts that get a bit of wear inside and in the garden.

^^^ I think she misheard me asking to get high and give me a blow job on the collar to hit my eye for real life stimulation.

Is it also true that the center vented jacket came about because of men hunting on horse back?

What's the story behind the hook vent? What was the thinking behind it?


Zach has this to say on Ivy Style;

"The hooked vent probably had its origins in the same place that lapped seams did: outdoor riding or weather gear. Lapping is a stronger way of finishing a seam, which is why it is often found on raincoats and blue jeans. The L-hook of the vent is probably there to distribute the tension that is placed on a center vent when the jacket is pulled tightly across the back for whatever reason. Imagine pulling both sides of the vent apart on a non-hook center vent, and then imagine that same action done on a hooked vent. The tension doesn’t rip directly up the seam in the same way. Like the “button on center” stance, it was probably popularized by J. Press, though certainly not invented."

Of all the ideas put forward in CCs article (http://www.ivy-style.com/the-hook-vent-trademark-of-the-ivy-leauge-look.html} on the hooked vent, this one, for whatever reason, makes most sense to me.

Thoughts?

Last edited by Liam Mac (2013-01-18 06:36:05)

I do know that the button hole on a left lapel stems from when jackets were first rolled back to have a lapel. Before that jackets used to button up to the collar and the lapel would be part of the jackets front.

Thinking about it, it would make sense that they both came from riding. Longer jackets would have to have a center vent. Maybe this is why dinner jackets don't have vents? Not that I am into dinner jackets either.

Maybe jackets were without vents, then someone started wearing their riding jacket off their horse and it felt more comfy to walk in and it just caught on. Then as jackets got shorter side vents were used to keep riders lower backs warmer. Dinner jackets would only have been worn for that purpose and so vents were never introduced.

Last edited by Tudor (2013-01-18 09:51:19)