Dress Collar Polo Shirt

Abstract

A new type of polo shirt possessing the soft flexibility of the body of a polo shirt yet incorporating the stiffness and shape of the collar of a dress shirt. The dress point stand collar of the polo shirt achieves the stiffness or semi-rigidity by the insertion of a stiffening interfacing fabric into the folded over portion of the collar and the placket to achieve a dressy shirt look.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Polo shirts for decades have been uniformly woven in a fairly loose fabric weave to provide for ease of movement by the wearer and flexibility in the body, sleeves and collar of the polo shirt. The collars that have been introduced as part of the polo shirts over that time period are the spread collar, the cutaway collar and, more recently, the button-down collar. While it could be discerned that polo shirts were more recently trending toward a more dressy look, non have incorporated a stand collar with extended point exhibiting a tighter fabric weave which is stiffened by an interfacing to mimic dress shirt collars so that neckwear can be accommodated by the collar and worn with the softer fabric polo shirts. In fact, more recent innovations in polo shirts have gone in a different direction by creating different colors between the body and collar of the shirt, as well as a button-down collar to produce a more formal look for the polo shirt.

The present invention provides a stand collar having a dress point outer collar band that is stiffened or reinforced to produce a stiffer collar with a dress point on either side of the spread between the ends of the collar band. This stand collar exhibits a tighter weave than the remaining body of the polo shirt creating a look mimicking that of a dress shirt collar. The stiffer stand collar is attached to the body of the polo shirt at the neck opening such that the resulting polo shirt displays a looser weave body and sleeves and a tighter weave stiffened dress point stand collar so that it becomes possible to wear this novel combination with a blazer or other jacket, and with neckwear, if desired, for a more formal look. The dress point collar polo shirt can be worn by both men and women either alone for a less formal look, or with a jacket for a more formal look.

One earlier apparatus for shaping the collar of a shirt was disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2015/0313289 [Lester] that provided for a U-shaped semi-rigid member that can be positioned in the cavity formed under the folded over portion of the collar to support and shape the collar while the collar is wet until dried. The semi-rigid member is not secured to any element of the shirt and is able to be reshaped into any desired U-shaped form to conform the shirt collar into any number of shapes when dry. This device is solely purposed to provide a form for drying a shirt collar and is not used for strengthening or stiffening a shirt collar to retain its shape while in use.

An example of the state of the art at the present time for collared polo shirts is The Frebano polo shirt that provides a dressier collar for such shirts. The Frebano polo shirts display spread collars for its series of single color or color contrast collar polo shirts. These polo shirts do not show a dress point collar configuration, nor do they describe any sort of strengthening or stiffening to the shirt collar to maintain its shape while being worn.

It is one object of the present invention to incorporate a reinforced stand collar onto a polo shirt providing an opportunity to dress up a standard polo shirt by the incorporation of the stiffened stand collar displaying a lengthened collar point on either side of the spread between the opposing ends of the outer collar band. Another object of the present invention is to continue the looser weave of the fabric of the polo shirt within the body and sleeves while creating a collar for joining with the body that provides a tighter stiffened weave of the same fabric to dress up the polo shirt and permit its wearing to events requiring a more dressy look while still providing the relaxed nature of the polo shirt for the wearer. A further object of the present invention is to permit the wearing of a necktie, if desired, for use with the dress collar polo shirt in an office environment or dressy occasion without the need for the wearer to rely on a broadcloth collared shirt.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a series of buttons along the front placket of the polo shirt and to incorporate into the placket an interfacing fabric for stiffening the placket that, taken together, will mimic the look of a button down broadcloth shirt. Other objects will appear hereinafter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a polo shirt having a standard configuration including a shirt body and right and left sleeves attached at opposing arm openings in the shirt body. Along the front of the polo shirt is a placket that is positioned at the midpoint of the front of the shirt body having a series of buttons and cooperating button holes arrayed vertically along the placket. The polo shirt also has a stand collar that is attached to the shirt body at the neck opening. The stand collar has both an inner band and an outer folded over band containing a stiffening interfacing. The interfacing is housed within the outer folded over collar band creating a semi-flexible outer collar band. The outer folded over collar band has an extended length at opposing ends of the collar band configured to form dress points on either side of the collar spread. The dress points of the outer collar band, when measured against the height of the inner collar band, are of a greater length while maintaining a narrow spread between the two opposing dress points of the stand collar.

The shirt body of the polo shirt exhibits a looser weave of fabric while the stand collar exhibits a tighter weave of the same fabric for producing a dressier collar replicating a dress shirt made of a tighter weave broadcloth. The placket along the front of the polo shirt also has a stiffening interfacing housed within the outer portion of the placket for creating a stiffened placket adding to the dressier shirt look.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings forms which are presently preferred; it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the dress point collar polo shirt of the present invention with the body and collar showing differing weaves and the collar button closed.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the dress point collar polo shirt of the present invention with the body and collar showing differing weaves and the collar button closed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the dress point collar polo shirt of the present invention with the body and collar showing differing weaves and the collar and first buttons open.

FIG. 4 is a diagram depicting and describing shirt collar anatomy.

FIG. 5 is a depiction of a point collar.

FIG. 6 is a depiction of a button-down collar.

FIG. 7 is a depiction of a spread collar.

FIG. 8 is a depiction of a cutaway collar.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along Line 9-9 of FIG. 1 showing the stiffening material within the dress point collar.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along Line 10-10 of FIG. 1 showing the stiffening material within the front placket.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along Line 11-11 of FIG. 1 showing the stiffening material within the front placket at a button hole.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description is of the best presently contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. The description is not intended in a limiting sense, and is made solely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention. The various features and advantages of the present invention may be more readily understood with reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, where like numerals refer to like parts or elements, there is shown the dress collar polo shirt of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 the dress collar polo shirt 10 displays a shirt body 12, right and left sleeves 14, 16, respectively, a front placket 18, and a dress point stand collar 20. Before describing each of these elements in more detail, it is believed necessary to describe the differing collar types and those elements comprising a shirt collar. Each of four different collar types are shown in FIGS. 5-8. Each of these collar types are different and distinct from each other due to their respective shapes, collar points and their positions relative to the shirt body.

Referring to FIG. 4 the various elements of a shirt collar can be described. A collar is principally formed by a collar band that is attached to the shirt body and extends upward therefrom. The collar band can be considered to have an inner band and a folded over outer band. The inner band, that is attached to the body of the shirt at the neck opening, has a predetermined height around the entirety of the collar for the length of the band. However, the outer folded over band may change its height or length from the fold and become greater as the band ends at the front of the shirt creating a collar point. It is to be noted that the inner collar band has a fixed height in all collar types but the outer (folded over outward) collar band may have a varying height (or length) from the fold as the band progresses forward on the shirt. The change in height is commonly referred to as the point length versus the collar height with the collar terminating on either side of the tie space in a forward facing collar point. The collar type is determined based upon both the point length and the collar spread between the collar points.

Some of the various collar types can be described as follows. FIG. 5 is a point collar that exhibits an extended front point length at each end of the outer collar band. The collar point extends downward over the front body of the shirt from opposing ends of the collar band a length greater than the inner collar height ending in an extended point having a narrow spread between the opposing collar points. In FIG. 6 a button-down collar shows a collar point extending downward a length greater than the collar height and attached to the shirt body by buttons adjacent to and extending through the collar point. It is not necessary, however, for the collar point of button-down shirts to have a greater length than the collar height as the buttons, wherever positioned on the shirt body, will hold the collar in place.

Referring to FIG. 7, a spread collar is shown that has similar attributes to both of the previously described collars. However, in this instance, the collar point length and collar height are more similar in the length dimension for the reason that the collar points are spread farther apart. Thus, the collar point length of the spread collar is not as great as in the point collar example. Finally, in FIG. 8 the cutaway collar is depicted. This collar shows a maximum spread between collar points that appear to be substantially aligned with each other in the horizontal direction. While all of these collar types have been incorporated in broadcloth dress shirts only the spread collar, button-down and cutaway collar types have appeared on polo shirts, and then without any reinforcement or stiffening to maintain the collar in a flat, uncurled position.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 the dress collar polo shirt 10 is provided with a front placket 18 extending downward from the collar 20 to a point midway along the front of the polo shirt 12. The placket 18 located at the midpoint of the polo shirt has a reinforcing sew line 19 at the bottom of the front polo shirt opening. Spaced upwardly from the bottom along the placket 18 are a series of buttons 17 ending at the collar band with collar button 15. The collar button 15 extends from the rearward portion of the placket 18a through the button hole 15a to connect the rearward portion 18a to the front portion 18b of the placket 18. See, FIG. 3. With reference to FIGS. 1, 10 and 11, the sectional view of FIG. 10 shows the construction of both the rear portion of the placket 18a and the front portion of the placket 18b. Sewn within the front portion of the placket 18b is an interfacing fabric 13 for reinforcing or stiffening the placket 18 to increase the strength of the placket in resisting bending or folding over resulting in the maintaining of the polo shirt front around the placket 18 in an upright position that resists separation even though unbuttoned. FIG. 11 shows the arrangement of the interfacing of a reinforcing or stiffening fabric 13 around a button hole where it is separated to permit a button 17 that is secured to the rear portion of the placket 18a to be pushed through the front portion of the placket 18b to secure the two portions 18a, 18b of the placket 18 together.

Returning to FIGS. 2, 3, the collar 20 can be described as being composed of an inner band 21 and an outer folded over band 22. The collar, as a whole, is made of a fabric having a tighter weave than the weave of the fabric comprising the body and sleeves of the polo shirt. This difference in weave tightness, which is clearly discernable to the human eye, is depicted in each of FIGS. 1-3 with greater spaced lining for the fabric of the body 12 and sleeves 14, 16 and much tighter spaced lining for the collar elements. The difference in the linings are intended to show that the collar 20 will resist curling or folding, i.e., exhibit less flexibility, to a greater extent than the body of the polo shirt 12 and sleeves, 14, 16. To augment the resistance of the collar 20 from curling or folding, an interfacing of a reinforcing or stiffening fabric 13a is placed within the outer folded over band 22 of the collar 20 that extends substantially the entirety of the height or length of the outer folded over band 22 from its fold with the inner band 21 to its farthest extent. See, FIG. 9. The reinforcing or stiffening fabric 13a is placed within the outer folded over band 22 to maintain a less flexible and more semi-rigid condition so that the collar maintains an uncurled or unfolded look mimicking a similar dress point collar of a broadcloth dress shirt.

As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the collar 20 is depicted as a point collar with very little spread between the opposing ends of the outer folded over band 22 of the collar 20. This is also the case as the point lengths of the collar 20 at the opposing ends of the outer folded over band 22 far exceed the height measurement of the remainder of the outer folded over band 22 of the collar 20, or the height of the inner collar band 21.

Referring to the interfacing 13, 13a, a light to medium weight woven or knit fabric is preferrable for most polo shirts. A heavier interfacing will not allow the collar to roll smoothly with movement of the wearer resulting in a board-like appearance. Further, the weight or thickness of the interfacing fabric should match the fabric thickness of the overall shirt. If unsure of an interfacing weight or thickness, it is preferred to incorporate a slightly lighter weight interfacing rather than a stiffer one that will likely dominate the fabric and shirt resulting in an unflattering look.

Hence, a new garment has been created that possesses the soft flexibility of a polo shirt yet incorporates the stiffness of the collar of a dress shirt. Thus, a dress point polo shirt can be worn by a man or a woman under a suit or blazer jacket, with or without neckwear, and the wearer has the comfort and breathability of a flexible fabric body while exhibiting a collar with the stiffness of a dress shirt.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof and, accordingly, the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as being illustrative and not restrictive, with the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims, rather than the foregoing detailed description, as indicating the scope of the invention as well as all modifications which may fall within a range of equivalency which are also intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. A polo shirt comprising a shirt body, right and left sleeves attached at right and left sleeve arm openings in the shirt body, a placket positioned at the midpoint of the front side of the shirt body having a series of buttons and cooperating button holes arrayed vertically along the placket, and a stand collar attached to the shirt body at the neck opening; said stand collar having an inner band and an outer folded over band having a stiffening interfacing housed within the outer folded over collar band with such outer folded over band configured to form dress points at opposing ends of the collar band.

2. The polo shirt of claim 1, wherein the shirt body exhibits a looser weave of fabric and the stand collar exhibits a tighter weave of the same fabric producing a dressier collar.

3. The polo shirt of claim 1, wherein the placket has a stiffening interfacing housed within the outer portion of the placket creating a stiffened placket.

4. The polo shirt of claim 1, wherein the dress points of the outer collar band are of a greater length than the height of the inner collar band while maintaining a narrow spread between the two opposing dress points of the stand collar.