I'd agree with TRS, I have a couple of NOS from O'Connell's bought about 10 years ago that were probably made in the '80's and the collars are less than 3", and a vintage (late 60's I reckon ), h/s batik print I bought from Lloyd Johnson that has a very small collar, I actually wear it un-buttoned and it works well as a camp collar style, a friend of mine has stowed away somewhere 1 or 2 shirts he bought from the IS '69-70, I've asked him a few times to dig them out just so I can inspect the details, I think, ( but could be corrected I'm sure), that in the '60's there was ' grown up' Ivy shirts,(with longer collars , to take a tie ?), and ' teenager' Ivy shirts ( for casual wear ?), such as the ' Career Club' shirts I use to buy from the IS, can't remember them having particularly long collars, in the '68-'70 period you could always identify the ' oiks' from the large collars on the awful Brutus shirts, as well as the brash check patterns and very short sleeves, ( not h/s's like us superior beings had on our USA originals !), Ben Shermans sat somewhere between USA originals and Brutus, Over to you RobbieB ........

I dislike the word 'myth'.  'Orthodoxy' I'll accept.  But the button-down shirt is now virtually meaningless.  The old guy who came to give me a quote for repairing the roof wore a check button-down - as work wear. 
Frankly, I still like a flowing roll on my collars (although, recently, they've been hidden behind a crew neck). 
It's stiffness I find difficulty in dealing with; lazy design. 
I don't think the roll on a Mercer shirt is anything to write home about.  Nor Troy Guild.  In fact, USA-made Baggies aren't bad in this respect. 
I outed a couple of shirts recently: one Duck Head, the other Bill's.  USA-made but simply boring.

Then, of course, in London, there's the myth of the ham roll, the cheese roll...  what we thick Midlanders call 'cobs'...  All very puzzling to any Sloane Ranger with a horsey background I've no doubt...  'Do you wealize, Tarquin, north of Pwimwose Hill they call a woll by another name altogether?  Aren't they funny'?

I also think the collar roll myth is overstated. However for me, with a long neck, I always want a decent collar length. I was with my brother in law one time when he was buying a shirt and I pointed out the collar roll wasn't all that to which he repied' I have a short neck and a smaller collar suits me!' I had a vested interest because I usually end up with some of his shirts.
Brutus shirts in the 60s were not rated by my mates and the short sleeved ones were not good with the short, short tight sleeves and button on the sleeve with a small v. Some of the patterns of the checked shirts I liked however.
For half sleeved shirts we coverted the American imports.
Ben Sherman shirts we considered as good as many of the American import shirts but when everyone started to wear them we moved on in an effort of oneupmanship.

My mum stopped telling me what clothes to wear when I was 10 years old. Clothes were important to me even at that age and I knew what I wanted. She held the purse strings however so I couldn't just buy anything I wanted. I was the last boy in my class to get long trousers (I was also the youngest) but I went to the shop on my own to buy a pair of grey flannels with a white tap collar shirt at 10 1/2 years old.

Frosty to Ian Strachan: 'Who makes a good shirt?'

Strachan: 'Brooks'.

Inference:  Why is this nebbish asking me these stupid questions?

One assumes that Pad and Jim remained loyal to Brooks, being slightly perplexed when Frosty went a-whoring in a Press direction.

I follow slavishly in Ian Strachan's footsteps.

Was it 'Geoffrey Scott' the Ivy Shop boys especially disliked?

Was it 'Geoffrey Scott' the Ivy Shop boys especially disliked?

May have disliked them, but that didn't stop them flogging you them. I bought a few really liked them. Ended up passing them onto my Dad when I went through the stage of getting rid of a lot of clothing. I asked for them back years later and he told me he binned 'em.

Correction: 1940.