Bespoke Shirts
The Tab Collar Shirt.
A specific formality — the collar that lifts the tie and announces a considered approach to dress.
The tab collar shirt is a specific and deliberate choice. A small cloth or metal tab passes through slots on each collar point and clips or buttons beneath the tie knot, drawing the collar points together and lifting the tie off the shirt front. The effect is distinctive: the tie is pushed forward and upward, the knot is prominent, and the shirt reads as precise in a way that other collars do not. It was a popular choice among the elegantly dressed men of the early and mid-twentieth century — Duke of Windsor, Fred Astaire — and remains, in bespoke dress, a quiet indicator of someone who has thought carefully about their clothing.
How the tab collar works — the mechanics and the effect
The tab passes through two small buttonholes — one on each collar point — and either buttons or clips in the centre, below the tie knot. When fastened, it pulls the two collar points toward each other underneath the tie, which forces the tie upward and forward away from the shirt. The knot is lifted, the collar is neatened, and the whole construction of the shirt collar and tie reads as a single, unified element.
At The Black Lapel, tab collars are made with a sewn cloth tab rather than a metal collar bar, which is more comfortable through a full day of wear and more easily laundered. The tab is in the same cloth as the collar — white on white, or a contrasting colour by agreement. The buttonhole is worked cleanly into the collar point and is invisible when the collar points are laid flat.
The tie knot for a tab collar — narrower is correct
Because the tab draws the collar points together and reduces the opening between them, a narrow-to-medium tie knot is correct with a tab collar — a four-in-hand or a small Pratt. A full Windsor knot would be too large for the narrowed opening. The knot should be symmetrical and trimly tied; the tab collar exposes the knot more fully than other collars and any untidiness in the knot is visible.
Tie cloth with a degree of body — a medium-weight silk twill or a grenadine — holds the knot's shape better when lifted by the tab than a lightweight foulard, which can wilt. A knitted tie in silk or wool is also well-suited to the tab collar's character: formal but with a considered, slightly period casualness.
When to wear a tab collar — the occasions and the character it projects
The tab collar shirt is appropriate in any formal professional context. It reads as correctly formal in a business setting, more so than a button-down and comparable to a spread collar — the precision of the collar construction signals formality. It is also particularly appropriate in contexts where individual style is expected alongside formality: creative direction, senior management, legal chambers where personal character is expressed through dress.
What the tab collar communicates is specific: that the wearer knows enough about fine dress to make a choice that most people do not make. It is not a flag, not a performance — it is a quiet signal to those who look carefully. Most people will simply register that the shirt looks extremely well put-together without being able to articulate why. That is precisely the effect it is designed to achieve.
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