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Collars Popping Up
Never before have two inches of fabric been so controversial
Vanessa Tsang, Washington Square News |
November 3, 2005
The style of wearing the collar on a polo shirt flipped up — or “popped”
— has become a runaway trend in recent months, inciting both disgust and
glorification among students. Pastel, striped, plastered with name-brand
logos, double popped, or half-popped and half-down, these errant collars
are causing a stir across campus.
“Especially with the opening of Rugby, there are a lot of NYU students
shopping there and wearing the entire [preppy] look head to toe now,”
said Patrick Michael Hughes, professor of fashion history at Parsons,
The New School for Design. “It’s very urban.”
Hughes also said that this trend is especially prominent in a city like
New York.
“You’re not going to get away with wearing the [entire preppy outfit on]
mannequins in the suburbs, but in the city you can. It’s a sort of costume-y
thing. It’s fun,” Hughes said. “But not after 25… Then it’s like, turn
the collar down, relax.”
With escalating numbers of students campaigning for or against the popped
collar on sites like Facebook.com — by joining various groups on each
side, 474 NYU students have indicated that they are in favor and 332 against
— heated arguments have been taking place over the meaning of the trend.
“It seems impractical because the collar is supposed to go down, not cover
your neck,” Gallatin sophomore Ruby Thorkelson said. “It screams—”
“—Flagrantly arrogant,” Gallatin sophomore Jake Stangel interjected. Stangel
said the style has been overdone.
“I know lots of nice people who pop their collar,” he said. “But I
think it looks really stupid — it’s gotten to a point where it’s
tacky.”
Even some students that follow the trend say it may be silly. “Oh, I
acknowledge that it looks ridiculous,” Tisch freshman and occasional
collar-popper Dan Clifton said.
Clifton created the NYU chapter of the Facebook group, “I’ll Pop My
Collar Whenever The Fuck I Want, Bitch (NYU Chapter),” at the
beginning of the school year.
“Usually I only pop it for special occasions,” Clifton said. “It feels
as if there is some invisible shield of coolness that envelops the
entire body. I’ll have on the nice shirt, jeans and shoes, and I
think, what would complete this ensemble? Maybe if I pop my collar.
Maybe I’ll even add the aviator sunglasses.”
Other students said seeing a person with a popped collar will alter
their perception of that person — in a bad way.
“It gives off an air of being stuck up and snooty — my immediate
reaction is, ‘You must be a jerk,’ ” Steinhardt sophomore Lucy Horton
said. “It affects how I interact with someone when I first meet them.”
But not all students react negatively to the trend.
“I get compliments [when I pop my collar],” Stern sophomore Greg
Hammond said. “Girls will compliment you on your shirt. Guys will say,
‘Oh, you’re a pimp!’ ”
Hammond created the “Popped Collars are For Pimps” Facebook group last
October.
Rather than a pimping accessory, some see the popped collar as a
social class divider that further separates the rich from the poor at
NYU.
“I think popping one’s collar is a status symbol — that they can
afford the label on their polo shirts,” Horton said. “It’s the
mentality of showing it off.”
Several students observed an increase of popped collars over the past
year, and not just among wealthy WASPs.
“Now you see it in all different kinds of people, not just your rich
white boy from Connecticut,” Hammond said.
“I think it pops up in all demographics,” Horton said. “I’ve seen it a
lot in WASP-y rich suburbs, but also in hip-hop urban culture. It’s a
status symbol in each group to rise to the top.”
Those just picking up on the trend might have missed the initial onset
of the style, said Joshua Suzanne Ethier, 42, co-owner of Rags-A-GoGo,
a vintage boutique in the West Village.
“I first started noticing the trend when models were walking into my
store two years ago with their collars up, when it was cutting edge,”
Ethier said.
Continued... | Washington Square News
