Examples of the proper roll...

7095 Views 33 Replies 18 Participants Last post by stfu, Nov 4, 2008

Saltydog

Discussion Starter · Oct 20, 2008

Perhaps there is already a voluminous thread on this. But with all the threads featuring pictures of Cordovan Tassle loafers, odes to the bit loafer, or other favorite trad attire...is there a thread showing a plethora of pictures featuring proper rolls on our various beloved button-down collars? I'd start one, but I'm a bit technically challenged and don't have a digital camera. I remember what could only have been an epiphany showing me my fondness for the trad look back in the '70s--when everyone was wearing hideous polyester shirts and leisure suits. I drove past a bill board advertising for a local politician. It was a close up of him in black and white with a perfectly rolled OCBD and rep tie with a four-in-hand knot. Not being anywhere near a Brooks Bros. or the the like at the time, it took several years to locate an OCBD (Gant) and a visit to a larger city where I happened into a traditional menswear shop and found some OCBD Seros and regimental striped ties. Wore them till I was able to move up to Gitman Bros and BB. One look at the proper collar and tie presentation can indeed change a man for life. At least in the way he dresses!

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Sartre

· #19 · Oct 23, 2008 (Edited)

^ The photographs with tie are helpful. When we talk about the "roll" we are talking about how the collar lies when worn with a tie. Sans tie, most OCBDs look pretty much the same.

P.S. An existential question. Why don't the catalogues ever show a shirt with a proper roll? Even the people who do a decent roll, such as Brooks (non-non-iron) and Ben Silver -- why don't their catalogues capture that? My hypothesis is that a good roll is assisted by a minimum of half a dozen lauderings, pressings, and starchings.

tjs

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Sartre

· #22 · Oct 23, 2008

^ Yes, it's hard to explain. Or, rather, can't be explained. Of course it's a matter of opinion...but the settled body of opinion seems to hold that the roll gives the shirt a certain breezy or jaunty quality.

And there is also the matter of precedent. If you look at early pictures of button-down shirts (incl. old Apparel Arts drawings) you'll see that they always sport the roll. Brooks, the standard-bearer of the OCBD shirt, always had a significant roll to its collars. And so for at least 30-40 years, shirts without a roll have looked like a sort of cheap imitation of the original.

tjs

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Sartre

· #29 · Oct 24, 2008 (Edited)

^ Good man, AP. I think almost anyone here would be interested in Flusser's Clothes & the Man or Dressing the Man.

Here is an example of a good collar roll (in my opinion).

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