HomeGlossaryButton-Down Collar
Button-Down Collar
Construction — one of 70 in the glossary
A collar whose points fasten to the body of the shirt with small buttons, so they stay put instead of lifting. It was adapted from English polo shirts, where players buttoned the points down to stop them flapping into their faces, and it remains the least formal of the standard collar styles — a button-down is a casual or business-casual shirt however fine the cloth.
Button-down is not button-front
This is the confusion worth clearing first. Almost every dress shirt buttons down the front; that does not make it a button-down. The term refers only to the collar points being fastened to the shirt.
A shirt with a plain point or spread collar and a buttoned front is a button-up, not a button-down.
The distinction matters when you are specifying blanks, because "button-down" in a brief can mean either thing to the person reading it.
The roll is the quality signal
A well-made button-down has a gentle arc — the roll — between the collar point and the button. It comes from cutting the collar slightly longer than the distance it has to span, so the fabric has to bow.
A cheap button-down is cut tight and lies flat against the chest, which looks stiff and slightly wrong without most people being able to say why.
Collar construction is the other tell: unlined or lightly fused collars roll naturally; heavily fused ones stay rigid.
Decorating a button-down shirt
It is a woven shirt, so it behaves like one at the press: stable, flat and much easier to embroider than to print.
Left chest is the standard placement, and the pocket — if there is one — usually decides how much room there is.
The collar itself is occasionally embroidered on uniform work. It needs a small design and a shop that has done it before; the fused layers and the buttons make it fiddly.
Common questions
- What is a button-down collar?
- A collar whose points fasten to the shirt with small buttons so they do not lift. It came from English polo, where players buttoned the points down to stop them flapping.
- What is the difference between button-down and button-up?
- Button-down refers to the collar points being buttoned to the shirt. Button-up just means the shirt fastens down the front, which nearly all shirts do. Every button-down is a button-up; most button-ups are not button-downs.
- Is a button-down collar formal?
- It is the least formal of the standard collars. However fine the fabric, a button-down reads as casual or business-casual rather than formal.
- What is collar roll?
- The gentle arc between the collar point and its button, produced by cutting the collar slightly longer than the span it covers. A flat, tight collar is the sign of a cheaply made button-down.
See also
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