Besides, the button-down has become pretty ubiquitous.  Men wear them because, well, because they wear them.  They've never heard of Brooks Brothers, think M&S is still good for ladies knickers but not much else, probably imagine Ralph Lauren to look something like Clint Eastwood in his prime.  Crappy versions are available everywhere, often in that periwinkle blue I love so much, sometimes even in university/candy stripe.  But the collars will be stiff, the collars will be skimpy.

I sometimes unbutton the bd, often in the summer on 1/2 sleeves just to make it look a bit more casual, or if I feel the collar is a fraction too short, and don't think short collars are a new-ish thing, the only vintage shirt I own, (I'd say late '60's), has a short collar, but the collar can also be worn in  a ' camp-collar' style, and a couple of nos shirts from O'Connell's could do with a bit more length on the collar, I use to wear the bd unbottoned in the
' transition' year of 1970, like others trying to distance ourselves from the skinheads, gave up in the end and went hairy flairy ! Of course JS often had the collar unbuttoned when he use to wear shirts regularly, all personal choice of course, that's my 2 bobs worth, obviously not put as eloquently as Alvey who I'd say is a 'Wordsmith' of the highest order ,