Personal Learning

If you’re a guy that’s ever been on a business trip with a collared shirt (of the non-button down variety) and left your collar stays at home, boy have I got a tip for you. If you have no idea what I am talking about, collar stays are the little flat plastic/metal “sticks” that you put into a collar to keep it straight when there are no buttons to keep a collar in place.

If you’re stuck without collar stays, you can either A) put your tie on and let your shirt take flight with its brand new set of wings, B) spend hours hunting for a men’s clothing store where you can pay large sums of money for little pieces of plastic, or C) make yourself a new set of temporary collar stays out of a business card. If you’re like me, you’re interested in option C), so here is my quick guide.

1. Put the business card up against the collar stay “pocket” on the backside of the shirt collar. Measure the length of the collar stay you need to make since you will probably need to shorten the business card to make it fit, and mark the card at that location by starting to fold it.
2. Continue to fold the card back-and-forth, making a sharp crease where you need to trim the card. Once the card feels weak enough to tear along this line, go ahead and remove the part of the card you don’t need.
3. Now, fold the card in half the long way. Repeat the process of creasing the fold, and folding the card back-and-forth until you can split the card into two equal parts.
4. With each of your new collar stays, fold the card in thirds along the length of the card. You don’t need to crease the folds this time, nor do you need to fold them back-and-forth. The goal isn’t to tear the card anymore, you are just trying to make the paper thick by creating three layers.
5. If needed, fold a “point” onto one end of each collar stay so that it fits into the collar stay “pocket” better.
6. Insert your collar stays, and enjoy the look of a nice, straight collar.

This has worked for me on a couple of occasions, but I am sure someone out there has a better idea. So if you have improvements on this, or a better method altogether, please leave a comment.