Collar Me Badd

Yeah, I have no idea how I'm going to tie in the early 1990's band I horribly punned for my title. Whew, now that we have that out of the way we can jump headfirst into the actual content. Much like the prior post on saddle shoes, we will be talking about an item of clothing that has fully embraced styling from the past. What, pray tell you, are you referring to oh wise teacher? Flattery isn't necessary my young padawan, the key item I'm speaking about is the contrast-collar dress shirt.

With all due respect, if you can't figure out what exactly that I'm talking about, you shouldn't be reading this blog. But, in lieu of alienating a new reader, a contrast collar dress shirt is exactly what it says it is: a dress shirt where the collar is a different color from the rest of the garment. It seems you can get this look at just about every major fashion retailer. So, no matter whether you are shopping on an H&M or a D&G budget, you should be able to add this into the spring rotation.

In general, the white collar on a different-colored shirt tends to look a little bit more formal. However, don't be afraid to partner it up with a little denim. The trick with this shirt is to convey the correct mood, which is usually accomplished by fit and the number of buttons you have done up on it. If you have it buttoned all the way up, you'd better have a nice tie to go with it and probably something other than denim. Think of this look as the "Duke of Awesomeshire" and you'd better be planning to hit up some classy events attended by Blake Lively and the Upper East-siders.

Then you have the entirely opposite look where you go sans tie and undo at least 2 buttons. When doing this, please don't wear a white crew neck t-shirt underneath. The objective here is to find that fine balance of being perfectly put-together and effortless nonchalance... in other words, being rakishly disheveled. Heck, go ahead and pair it with some great saddle shoes as well.

As you can probably guess, the final look is a combination of the top two, in that you still wear a tie except you don't button the top button. Just a little bit of looseness in the tie gives the cavalier attitude with the sophistication of sporting neckwear. This tends to be the look I most often wear and gives you the option to easily convert to the other two. Final Verdict: the goal this season is to take this 1980's Wall Street style and give it that casual edge. Even Brooks Brothers has added these to their "University" Collection.