The Clergy Shirt and Collar Handbook
Four collar systems, five materials and six measurements. What separates a tab from a band, which height suits your neck, and what shirt colour actually signals in each tradition.
On this page
On this page
There are four types of clerical collars in ordinary use, and what separates them is how the white part attaches to the shirt: a moulded tab that slides into a tunnel at the front, a full band that shows all the way round, a separate collar studded onto a plain neckband, or a collar sewn permanently into the garment. Everything after that — height, material, shirt cloth, colour — follows from that first decision. This page is the reference for the whole set, and the four articles beneath it go into the choices in detail.
The four types of clerical collars, and how each attaches
The tab collar (also called a tunnel collar)
The shirt has a stand-up neckband of its own cloth, black or whatever colour the shirt is, with a horizontal slot cut into the front. A small rectangle of white plastic — commonly 35 to 70 mm across the visible face, in a height matching the neckband — slides in through the slot and sits behind the opening, so a white rectangle about the width of two fingers shows at the throat. Nothing else is white.
Practically, this is the least trouble. The tab weighs almost nothing, costs a few pounds or dollars to replace, and can be pulled out in the vestry in five seconds. It is also the only system that looks clean under a jumper or a stole with a wide neck opening, because there is no white band running round the back of the neck to peep out.
Our own black long-sleeve tab-collar clergy shirt is built on this system: a standard slot at the front of the band, sold without the tab so it takes the inserts you already use.
The full band
Here the white shows all the way round. Two constructions exist. In the first, the shirt’s neckband is a continuous tunnel and a long strip of plastic feeds round inside it. In the second, the collar is a self-supporting plastic band that fastens at the back with a stud or a press-stud and is worn over a neckband shirt. This is what most people outside the church mean by a “dog collar”, and it reads as more formal in almost every setting.
The neckband shirt with a detachable collar
The shirt has no collar at all — just a plain stand with a buttonhole or eyelet at the front and another at the back. A separate collar, historically linen and now more often plastic or cotton-covered plastic, is fixed with two studs. This is the oldest of the surviving systems and the one that gives the crispest line, because the collar is a purpose-made object rather than a fold of shirt cloth.
It is also the most work. Two studs must be found and fastened; the collar is laundered on its own schedule; and a linen one needs starching. The compensation is that the collar and the shirt wear out independently, so a good shirt is not thrown away because its collar has greyed.
The sewn-in collar
Less common in the UK and Ireland, more common in North American ready-to-wear: the white collar or tab is stitched permanently into the shirt. It never gets lost. It also cannot be replaced, cannot be laundered separately, and takes the shirt out of service when it greys — which it will do first, because the neck is where the soil is.
| Collar system | How it attaches | Comfort over a long service | Formality | Laundering |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tab (tunnel) | Plastic tab slides into a slot in the shirt’s own neckband | Best — the shirt’s cloth sits against most of the neck | Everyday; reads as informal in some Anglo-Catholic and Roman settings | Remove tab, wash shirt normally; wipe tab |
| Full band, tunnel type | Plastic strip feeds round inside a continuous neckband | Fair — plastic against the skin all round | Formal, and the most legible at distance | Remove strip before washing; strip cleaned by hand |
| Full band, self-supporting | Studs or press-stud at the back, worn over a neckband shirt | Fair to poor if the fit is even slightly tight | Formal | Collar and shirt washed separately |
| Detachable collar on neckband shirt | Two collar studs, front and back | Good if correctly sized; the studs are the weak point | Traditional and formal, especially in linen | Collar washed and, in linen, starched separately |
| Sewn-in | Stitched into the shirt | Varies with the shirt | Everyday | Whole shirt washed together; collar cannot be treated alone |
Which of these suits you depends less on tradition than on how long you are vested and what goes over the top. The case for each of the two commonest systems is worth reading before you commit to a wardrobe of one kind.
A warning about names
Makers do not agree on terminology, and the same words mean different things on either side of the Atlantic. “Roman collar” is used by some suppliers for the full band and by others for any clerical collar whatever; the USCCB’s own norm on clerical garb uses it in the second, general sense, prescribing “a black suit and Roman collar” as ordinary dress for priests outside liturgical functions (complementary norm to canon 284, promulgated 1999). “Anglican collar” is used by some for the tab and by others for a particular height of band. “Tunnel” and “tab” are used interchangeably in Britain and distinguished by some American makers.
When ordering, describe the construction rather than trusting the name: say “a shirt with a slot in the front of the neckband, taking a 35 mm tab” and there is no ambiguity left.
Collar materials
Plastic. The overwhelming majority of modern tabs and bands are moulded from PVC or a similar thermoplastic. It is cheap, waterproof, wipes clean and holds a gloss. Its limits are thermal: the British Plastics Federation gives PVC a maximum continuous use temperature of 60 °C, which is below the final rinse of a domestic dishwasher and well below boiling water. It also depends on plasticisers to stay flexible, and those migrate out over years, which is why an old collar cracks at the fold rather than simply looking tired.
Cotton-covered. A stiffened core faced with cotton or poly-cotton. Softer against the skin, matt rather than glossy, and machine washable with the shirts. It greys sooner than plastic and its life is measured in a year or two of regular wear rather than several.
Linen. The historic material, and still made. A linen collar is washed, starched and ironed like a piece of table linen, and when it is done properly nothing else looks like it. It also yellows, chiefly from ultraviolet light, with residual starch and skin oils accelerating the change.
Celluloid. Historic only, and worth knowing about because it turns up in old photographs and occasionally in a vestry drawer. John Wesley Hyatt patented the process in 1870, and by the turn of the century collars, cuffs and shirt fronts were being made from linen or paper sandwiched between thin celluloid sheets. They needed no laundering, which was the whole point. They are also nitrocellulose and extremely flammable. Do not wear one near candles; do not store one in a warm cupboard with anything you value.
Soft and “comfort” tabs. Flexible plastic, fabric-faced foam, or a plastic tab with a fabric sleeve. Useful in hot weather and for anyone whose neck reacts to a hard edge. They lose their shape faster and do not photograph as crisply.
Collar height is a fit measurement, not a style choice
Tabs and bands are made in heights from about 25 mm (1 inch) to 38 mm (1½ inches), with 32 mm and 35 mm the two most commonly stocked. Traditional linen bands run higher again.
The height that works is governed by the distance from the top of your collarbone to the underside of your jaw, not by fashion. Put two fingers flat on the front of your throat with your chin level: if they fill the space, a 25 mm collar is your ceiling. A tall collar on a short neck rides up under the jaw the moment you look down at a text, which is most of a service. A short collar on a long neck simply looks undersized.
Height is also the single most common cause of soreness. If the collar rubs, height and circumference are the first two things to check — the causes of a sore neck and what actually fixes each one works through them in order.
Shirt fabrics, and what each is for
- 100% cotton poplin or broadcloth. The most comfortable to wear all day and the most work to keep. Breathes, takes a press beautifully, creases, and shrinks on first wash unless it has been pre-shrunk.
- Poly-cotton, typically 65/35 or 55/45. The default for a reason: it holds its shape, dries fast, needs little pressing. It is warmer than cotton and holds oily soil more stubbornly, so the neckband grime line shows sooner.
- Performance knits with elastane. Stretch, wicking, no pressing. The elastane is the catch: chlorine bleach yellows it permanently, even where it is only a few per cent of a blend. Fabric conditioner also coats the fibre and kills the wicking.
- Linen and linen blends. Genuinely cooler in high summer. Creases the moment you sit in a car.
- Brushed cotton and flannel. For unheated churches. Heavy under a cassock.
Cut and fit: the measurements that matter
A clergy shirt is a dress shirt with an unusual neckband, and it is fitted the same way. Six figures decide it:
- Neck. Tape round the base of the neck, snug but not compressing, then add 13 mm (½ inch). Collar sizes step in half inches, and that half inch is the difference between comfortable and not.
- Chest. Fullest part, arms down, tape level at the back.
- Waist. At the natural waist, not the trouser line — this governs whether the shirt blouses over a cincture.
- Shoulder. Seam point to seam point across the back. This is the measurement that cannot be altered later.
- Sleeve. Centre back neck, across the shoulder, down to the wrist bone with the arm slightly bent.
- Body length. Longer if it is always tucked in and worn under a cassock; shorter if it is worn out.
The neck and body measurements you take here are the same ones a cassock or alb is cut from, so it is worth recording them once and keeping them. Measuring for a cassock and alb covers the additional lengths, and our measuring guide has the full sheet.
Women’s cuts
A clergy shirt cut for a woman is not a man’s shirt with darts added, though a great many sold as women’s shirts are exactly that. The real differences are a shorter and narrower neckband, a shoulder seam set further in, bust shaping, a shaped waist, a shorter sleeve, and — the one most often got wrong — a lower collar height, because a shorter neck cannot carry a 35 mm band without the top edge sitting under the jaw. Blouse-length and tunic-length bodies both exist and they are not interchangeable under a cassock alb.
Big-and-tall and petite
The problem at both ends of the range is that manufacturers grade a single block up or down, so proportions drift. On a large size the neckband is often generous while the sleeve stays short; on a petite the body length is cut but the shoulder is not. If you are outside a middle size range, the two measurements to insist on are shoulder width and sleeve length, because those are the two that make a shirt look bought rather than fitted. Everything else can be taken in.
Colour conventions by tradition and rank
Black is the base case almost everywhere. Beyond that, be careful: the rank-colour system that governs Roman Catholic and Anglican clerical dress has no counterpart in most Protestant bodies, and importing it causes confusion.
Roman Catholic. Black for priests and deacons; purple, more precisely amaranth, for bishops; scarlet for cardinals; white for the Pope. The system is inherited from the cassock, where Britannica records the same hierarchy — plain black for lesser clergy, red trim for bishops and archbishops, scarlet for cardinals, plain white for the Pope. Grey and white shirts are worn in hot climates and by some religious.
Anglican and Episcopal. Black for priests and deacons. Purple for bishops is a firm convention rather than a canon: the Diocese of Lexington’s own explanation of episcopal insignia notes simply that a bishop “often wear[s] a purple shirt with a clerical collar” to distinguish the office. In the Church of England, blue shirts are widely worn by licensed lay ministers and Readers; that too is convention, not law, and it does not travel to other provinces.
Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian and Reformed. Black is usual where a collar is worn at all, and many Reformed and Baptist ministers do not wear one. There is no prescribed rank colour. Where an ELCA or United Methodist bishop wears purple, the convention has been borrowed from Anglican practice by that individual or that synod; it is not a rule of the church body, and you should not assume it of any particular bishop. The LCMS, ELCA, UMC and PCUSA differ from one another here as much as they do from Anglicans.
Shirt colour also has nothing to do with the liturgical season. Nobody wears a green shirt in Ordinary Time.
Keeping the white white
The collar and the shirt are two different laundry problems and they should never be solved together. The rule that matters more than any other: take the tab or collar out before the shirt goes anywhere near a machine. A plastic tab left in a tunnel will emerge bent, and if it has been through a hot dryer it will emerge bent permanently.
Beyond that, the shirt is washed to lift sebum and the grey line at the neckband, and the collar is cleaned as a piece of plastic or linen with its own rules. Washing the shirt without yellowing the neckband and what actually cleans a collar of each material deal with those separately. Under a cassock, incidentally, the shirt takes far less abuse than it does worn alone — worth knowing if you are deciding which cut of cassock to wear over it.
Common questions
What are the types of clerical collars called?
The four constructions are the tab or tunnel collar, the full band, the detachable collar on a neckband shirt, and the sewn-in collar. The trade names attached to them — “Roman”, “Anglican”, “tunnel”, “banded” — are not used consistently between makers or between countries, so describe the construction and the height in millimetres when you order.
Is a tab collar acceptable for a Roman Catholic priest?
Yes. The USCCB’s norm requires clerical dress and names the black suit and Roman collar as ordinary; it does not specify the construction of the collar. Local practice varies, and in some parishes and religious communities the full band is expected for liturgical and formal occasions while a tab is unremarkable day to day. Ask your own diocese or community rather than a supplier.
Can women wear the same clergy shirts as men?
They can, and many do, but a shirt cut for a man will usually sit badly at the shoulder and carry too tall a collar. Women’s ordination is practised in the Episcopal Church, the ELCA, the United Methodist Church and the PCUSA among others, and not in the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox churches or the LCMS. Where it is practised, a properly graded women’s block makes a visible difference. Our clergy shirts are cut on separate men’s and women’s blocks to the same neck sizes.
How long should a clergy shirt last?
Judge it by the neckband rather than the calendar. When the fold at the top of the neckband goes thin enough to see light through, or the stitching at the edge of the tunnel begins to gape so the tab shifts sideways, the shirt is finished as a working garment however sound the body still looks.
Why has my white plastic collar gone yellow?
Usually light and heat rather than dirt. PVC needs heat stabilisers to resist decomposition and daylight, and once the surface has degraded the colour change is in the material, not on it. Nothing removes it. Storing collars in a drawer rather than on a sunny windowsill, and never on a radiator, roughly doubles the useful life.
What to check before you order
Take the six measurements above and write them down with the date. Measure the usable height of your neck with two fingers and buy tabs to match it, not to match the shirt you happen to own. Decide whether the shirts will be worn under a cassock most of the time, because that changes both body length and how much you should spend on the cloth. Buy collars or tabs in threes — the failure mode is losing one twenty minutes before a funeral, not wearing one out. And if you are ordering shirts at the same time as anything else, take the neck and shoulder figures from the same measuring session, so the shirts and everything worn over them are cut to one set of numbers.
