Why Do Some Shirts Have Collars?

I wondered - in my curiosity - if shirts always had collars. 

It seems obvious that they didn't. So, why do some shirts have collars? What purpose do they serve, and when did they first appear? 

Even today, most of us own a shirt with a collar, along with other tops such as a T-shirt, which have no collar at all. 

Let's start our search with the medieval clergy. That tells us that before the 15th century, there were no shirt collars at all.

Back then, shirts were simple undergarments with open, round, or scoop necklines, and long sleeves made of linen or hemp. 

Collars first appeared in the Western world sometime during the mid-to-late 15th century as simple standing bands of fabric around the neckline. I might have guessed that collars were a style of the wealthy. Wrong. 

Members of the clergy often wore stiff tunics with high necks, and adding a collar to the shirt worn beneath the scratchy tunic helped prevent the tunic’s stiff neck from aggravating the skin. Among the clergy, these collars became the only visible part of the shirt.

MacLeod and his collar

Though they originated for practical reasons and became symbols of humility and purity, the clerical collar you would recognize didn't appear until the 19th century, when Scottish Reverend Donald McLeod invented and popularized the clerical collar (informally known as a dog collar) worn by ministers today.

And there have been many collar styles and fashions in the past 700 years.