 |
No minors, no dogs…and no popped collars.
A bar in Washington, DC recently posted this sign at its entrance, warning potential patrons of its most detested social pitfalls.
Who knew a three-inch piece of fabric could elicit a bicoastal trend and simultaneously polarize fashion aficionados?
To learn more about the popped collar fad, it is important to understand the style’s roots. According to wikipedia.org, the upturned (popped) collar is: “an otherwise flat, protruding collar of a shirt, jacket or coat that has been turned upward. In recent years, some have perceived this as a ‘fashion signal.’”
The meaning of that signal has changed over the last century. The modern popped collar is thought to have arrived in 1929, when the tennis pro Renee Lacoste, inventor of the tennis shirt, turned up his collar to protect his neck from sunburn. Before that, the upturned collar was a detachable feature on 17th and early 18th-century men’s formal wear.
Up until the 1980’s, revolutionary entertainment icons dared to sport the upturn, including The Fonz, Elvis and Michael Jackson.
But not even the King of Pop could predict the collar’s fate. Published in 1980, The Preppy Handbook quickly became a national bestseller, and the look started to become more acceptable. Handbook author Lisa Birnbach called the upturned collar “virtuous” and the collar-popper “preppy.”
