Oct 29, 2019

How to Keep Your Shirt Collar Stiff

You work hard to keep your shirt clean and crisp, the color uniform, the appearance as good as it can be—and then, your collar rolls up on you. It makes all of the hard effort you put into looking your best seem pointless. But there’s good news: learning how to keep your shirt collar stiff is simple once you know the property strategy. Here are our tips.

How to Prevent Shirt Collars from Crimpling or Curling

Over time, the fibers in a shirt can warp disproportionately, leading to problems like crimpling, curling, or the tendency to stay “open.” In many cases, a simple ironing session will do the trick. But it’s also important that you take some preventative measures to keep your shirt in good condition:

Read the label when it comes to washing. One of the reasons fibers warp is that men don’t pay attention to the label on their shirt. They wash it on the wrong setting or leave the water at the wrong temperature. The result is a shirt collar that tends to break down over time, which leads to the bad tendencies you’ve noticed.
Dry-cleaning. If all else fails, have the shirt dry-cleaned along with the rest of a suit. The dry cleaners will be able to use cleaning solutions that don’t harm the shirt. The low-water method will also help make sure that the shirt maintains its integrity over time.

In the case of shirts, an ounce of prevention is often worth a pound of cure. But sometimes, for your favorite, most worn short, it might be too late for these preventative strategies.

Tips for Keeping Your Shirt Collar Stiff

Sometimes, your shirt just wants to stay open or allow the collar to crimple. That’s when it’s time for you to do some invasive surgery on the shirt. There are essentially two different methods on how to keep your shirt collar stiff:

Use a collar stay. If you’ve noticed that your collars stay relatively straight but they have a tendency to “open” on you, use a collar stay simply by inserting it and wrapping it around an open collar. You do this almost like you would a tie. That’s it—problem solved!
Spray starch on your collar and iron it. Before your shirt is fully finished in the dryer, remove it while there’s still some dampness. Heat up an iron as it waits on your ironing board and have some spray starch nearby. Iron the entire shirt, of course, but make sure to pay special attention to the collar when it’s time to iron it. Iron it on both sides. Spray it with starch, and then iron again. Good luck to any wrinkles that try to survive this method.

Complete Your Look with Berle Tailored Trousers

Once you have a stiff collar, it helps to have great clothes to pair with it. We recommend that not only you use these latest tips, but to use them alongside a new purchase from Berle! Our tailored trousers will truly help you look your best.