Throughout most of the 1880s, men wore hats, suits, and ties every day and everywhere. Called sack suits, they had three pieces. The loose, hanging single-breasted jacket, the matching vest, and trousers. Nearly all the shirt was covered by the jacket and vest, but the shirt collar was always visible. Collars get dirtier than other parts of the shirt, so white was chosen as a sign of cleanliness and an indication that the wearer was not the sort of man who did any manual labor.
Why Do We Call Them White Collar Workers and Blue Collar Workers?
In 1825, people used washtubs and washboards to clean their clothes
Except for the occasional Chinese Laundry, those who washed clothes were women. Water was heated over a fire, and the washerwoman (period-correct) scrubbed the wet clothes against the washboard’s metal ribs to loosen the dirt and sweat from the shirt. The work was hot, sweaty, and dirty and the area around the neck was the dirtiest and sootiest of all, requiring extra-vigorous scrubbing.
Hannah Montague lived in Troy, New York
It was a small town, just a bit up the Hudson River from Albany, the state capital. Her husband was fastidious and she was sick and tired of having to wash shirts so Orlando would have a clean collar every day, something unheard of at the time.
One day Hannah noticed an otherwise clean shirt had a soiled collar
Not happy about having to wash an entire shirt just to get the collar clean, she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the particularly dirty area around the neck from the not-as-dirty shirt. It was a lot easier to wash just the collar than the entire shirt.
She put the collar back on the shirt by hemming the cut edge and reattaching it to the shirt with buttons, a task much easier than scrubbing an entire shirt. Montague had just invented the detachable collar.
The Reverend Ebenezer Brown knew a good thing when he saw it
His wife and daughter made detachable collars and the Reverend sold them door-to-door. Detachable collars went viral. Soon the reverend had a crew of seamstresses (period-correct) making detachable collars that he sold in his notions (sewing supplies) store. Brown turned Hannah’s invention into a commercial product that went viral and along with Troy’s other 19 collar factories soon was selling millions of collars a year. Troy produced so many of the country’s detachable collars that people called it “Collar City.”
The new stand-alone collar was made of white linen and made stiff with starch paste
Laborers and factory workers couldn’t afford the expense of daily clean white collars but people who worked in offices could. Those clean, starched, bright white collars were status symbols. Not only were they easier to launder, they were also lots cheaper to replace than shirts. Those who wore them became known as white-collar workers.
The celluloid collar was introduced towards the end of the 19th century
Celluloid was the first commercially produced plastic and was used to mimic the look of starched linen. Celluloid collars did not need to be starched, washed or ironed. And they were affordable, so even those of the lower-classes could wear a clean status symbol every day.
in 1901, the U.S. Navy issued blue chambray shirts to all its sailors
The lightweight utility shirts were replacements for the heavy wool work shirts sailors had been wearing. Made of cotton chambray, they were comfortable and durable, designed to stand up to damage, stains, and general wear and tear. Dark blue was chosen for its ability to hide dirt, oil, and grease. Sailors on work details wore heavy denim pants, also blue.
Chambray shirts became more popular with civilians
It was valued for its breathability and durability, especially in work clothing. The fabric hid the dirt and was made to survive many washings. Workers preferred denim trousers because the fabric was heavy and rugged.
The terms “white collar” and “blue collar”
The terms were relatively unknown to most until Upton Sinclair popularized the term in the 1930s. In his book about American newsrooms, he used the term “white collar” to describe managers, administrators, and clerks who wore clean white dress shirts. Reporters and editors who worked in the newsroom were white collar workers. Everyone in the mailroom, pressroom, and transportation was a blue collar worker.
Today the terms broadly distinguish office work from manual labor
White collar workers are professionals, managers, and administrators. Blue collar workers have manufacturing, construction, or maintenance jobs.
What can I take a closer look at for you?
My name is David and I wrote this article, along with more than 500 others on this site alone. Ever since I was a kid with an insatiable curiosity and a knack for learning, I’ve observed, analyzed, and made sense of hundreds of different subjects and topics. Today, in addition to writing, I help organizations solve difficult problems requiring imaginative solutions. For more on this, drop by davidallanvan.com
