An item on BBC news just now about starched collars. Needless to say sodding Gosfield Park or whatever it's called got a mention.
I was supposed to have some starched collars for my last school, and was provided with some. They were dealt with correctly, if expensively, by the school laundry, starched and pressed to make them stiff, white and shiny.
But they were damned uncomfortable to wear, and fiddly to put on with collar studs. They abraded one's neck unpleasantly. Actually they are a squalid Victorian expedient intended (along with starched detachable cuffs) to make a sweaty, grubby shirt last for a week, just the collar and cuffs being changed daily. Yuck! And after a while they would get yellow or otherwise grubby where they abraded one's neck. Dried blood and DNA probably...
None of the rich boys at the school bothered with them. They just had shirts, often with assorted collar stiffeners to stop the collar from curling up, either little plastic inserts (which got mangled if left in during laundering) or a device with springs and prongs that left the collar points a bit threadbare after a while.
Gosport Park... tchah! Load of goddam cobblers.
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My mentor and former editor-in-chief was the last man I knew who wore detachable collars and he still does, aged nearly 90. Still uses Brylcreem too. When asked by a TV reporter some years ago about his hairstyle, he described it as 'matinee idol'.
He still writes to me using a manual typewriter, too.
'O King, live forever...'
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>> either little plastic
>> inserts (which got mangled if left in during laundering) or a device with springs and
>> prongs that left the collar points a bit threadbare after a while.
>>
Gosh, how the memories flood back listening to your old tales from the past.
I'd forgotten about those things, and can only dimly recall the spring kind - like a spring that's been put through a wringer and squashed flat?
There were some much bigger ones, about 8" long and 1/2" wide - what were they for?
Some sort of female corsetry?
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Never worn them myself but court clerk colleagues who had to dress like barristers did. I think they got some sort of allowances for purchase and laundering these instruments of torture.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 18 Oct 14 at 22:29
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>> much bigger ones, about 8" long and 1/2" wide - what were they for?
Some sort of female corsetry?
Called 'bones' from the days when they had been made of whalebone.
The collar stiffeners I mentioned were M-shaped devices with spring-loaded points at the bottoms of the vertical strokes. These were stuck into the hem at the collar points and the whole thing fitted invisibly behind the tie. The collar points would get a bit tattered after a while.
I'm not too keen on ties. Don't wear one, and leave the top two buttons of your shirt undone. Easier on the shirt and the neck, and looks perfectly all right unless you go about scowling threateningly like a tie-wearer.
Naturally you have to wear a tie on some special occasions. One isn't a savage after all.
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>>
>> Naturally you have to wear a tie on some special occasions. One isn't a savage
>> after all.
>>
Weddings and funerals only now, though I noticed that the last few funerals I attended many of the younger mourners were casually attired. As was I to some extent, the last time I wore a suit was for my wedding to the first Mrs O'Reliant in '82.
I'd like to be buried naked, in a glass coffin. And with a stipulation that all the women under 30 who wished to attend will be naked too, though any deemed obese will be excused.
As you imply, there are standards...
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Sun 19 Oct 14 at 16:47
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Laundry - Mike Hannon
