There’s two major pet peeves when it comes to my collared, button-down shirts. One is when the collar is flimsy and kinda flattens out toward your shoulders even after a thorough ironing. The other is when the collar curls up at the ends. Ok, there’s actually 3 pet peeves. The third one being “popping” your collar.
For the latter, clearly collar stays have been designed to address this very need, and it’s a simple solution at that. For the former however, there’s not that many options on the market. As we’ve covered before for polo shirts there’s the Wurkin Stiff Polo Stays which use really strong magnets to keep your collar exactly where you want it (with the iron grip of Stalin). Then there’s their Wurkin Stiff Power Stays which accomplish the same thing but for button-downs. The down-side is that neither of them are cheap ($35 for a set of 6 polo stays and $40 for a set of 6 power stays).
Enter the disruptor: The Fashion Anchor. The fashion anchor basically accomplishes the same thing as the Wurkin Stiff but in a low-tech kinda way. You know when you get a credit card in the mail it’s attached to the paper inside the envelope with a sticky tack? Well the fashion anchor is basically that stuff… but a LOT stronger. It’s made to apply to the under side of your collar and attach to your shirt. Don’t worry, it doesn’t damage the shirt in any way. You can honestly resurrect those old flimsy-collared shirts you don’t wear anymore!
You wouldn’t think so initially, but after a day of wearing it I’m confident that it’ll last more than one day as long as I’m not playing around with it too much. As they address in their FAQ’s:
Is the Fashion Anchor reusable?
Yes & No…. Once removed, the fashion anchor will not be nearly as effective as the original application. However, if you leave the fashion anchors on your shirt it will work as many times as you need it to until you physically remove it.
Here’s what I think the advantages are over the Wurkins…
- Low tech! Some things are cool when they’re high tech, but some things beg for simplicity. This is the latter.
- At $6 for a 12-pack or $15 for the 36-pack it’s a better bang for the buck than the Wurkin’s. You may be doubting that considering the Wurkins are forever reusable, but the reality is that if somehow the magnet gets jarred and falls away from the collar stay, it’s basically gone. That’s a lot of money to lose like that, and well it just feels like crap when that happens. And it WILL happen.
- I already have a bunch of metal (non-magnetic) collar stays. They do their job nicely and I don’t see any reason to get rid of them. I don’t think the fashion anchor replaces them altogether, but it provides an excellent complement to collar stays. When they work together, well my collar is just unstoppable!
