Collar (clothing)

In clothing, a collar is the part of a shirt, dress, coat or blouse that fastens around or frames the neck.

Separate ruffs exist alongside attached ruffled collars from the mid-16th century, usually to allow starching and other fine finishing,[citation needed] or to make collar-laundering easier.

[2] During the medieval period and sporadically thereafter, people wore ornamental collars as a form of jewelry.

Most collars are fitted to a jewel neck, a neckline sitting at the base of the neck all around; if the garment opens down the front, the top edges may be folded back to form lapels and a V-shaped opening, and the cut of the collar will be adjusted accordingly.

From the contrast between the starched white shirt collars worn by businessmen in the early 20th century and the blue chambray workshirts worn by laborers comes the use of collar colors in job designation, the "workforce colorwheel".