I was stumped earlier this year when I was contacted by the Carleton Place and Beckwith Museum with a picture of a wire thingy in their collection and asked if I knew how it was used… I couldn’t help. However, when they did find an identical one on its original display card they shared their find. It’s an early 1940s collar stay to keep men’s collar points crisp!
About Jonathan
Jonathan Walford is a fashion historian and co-founder of the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge, Ontario. The FHM maintains a collection of nearly 12,000 artifacts dating from the mid 17th century to the present. Jonathan has authored various books and museum catalogues, including The Seductive Shoe, Shoes A-Z, Forties Fashion, 1950s American Fashion, and Sixties Fashion.
