Collar stay for a shirt collar

Abstract

A stay is provided for a shirt collar having transverse tubes formed integrally at respective ends of the collar. The stay comprises an elongate stiffener body and hook means for engaging fabric material of the shirt collar as the stiffener body is slidably inserted into a respective transverse tube of the collar. The hook means resists sliding movement of the stiffener body relative to the transverse tube of the shirt collar in a reverse direction after insertion to ensure that the stays do not fall out of the tubes as the collars are handled in the interim before assembly onto a finished garment. The hook means are particularly useful for resisting sliding movement between the stays and the knitted tubes of a knitted collar because the hook means readily engages the chained loops of threaded material forming the tubes in knitted collars.

1 . A collar stay for a shirt collar having transverse tubes formed integrally at respective ends of the shirt collar, the collar stay comprising: 
 an elongate stiffener body extending in a longitudinal direction for being slidably received within a transverse tube of the shirt collar; and    hook means extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the stiffener body for engaging the shirt collar to resist sliding movement of the stiffener body relative to the transverse tube of the shirt collar in one direction.    
     
     
         2 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein the hook means are wider than the stiffener body.  
     
     
         3 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein the hook means are wider than a cross section of a respective transverse tube of the shirt collar.  
     
     
         4 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein the hook means and the stiffener body lie in a generally common plane.  
     
     
         5 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein the hook means are oriented in a common direction to resist sliding movement of the stiffener body relative to the shirt collar in one direction only.  
     
     
         6 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein all respective forward edges of the hook means and the stiffener body are tapered rearwardly and outwardly from a central longitudinal axis of the stiffener body.  
     
     
         7 . The collar stay according to  claim 1  wherein the hook means project outwardly from one side only of the stiffener body.  
     
     
         8 . The collar stay according to  claim 8  wherein the stiffener body includes a straight edge along one side thereof opposite the hook means.  
     
     
         9 . A shirt collar comprising: 
 an elongate collar body having transverse tubes formed integrally at respective ends of the collar body; and    a collar stay comprising an elongate stiffener body extending in a longitudinal direction for being slidably received within one of the transverse tubes of the collar body;    each collar stay including hook means extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the stiffener body for engaging the shirt collar to resist sliding movement of the stiffener body relative to the transverse tube of the shirt collar in one direction.    
     
     
         10 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the hook means are wider than the stiffener body.  
     
     
         11 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the hook means are wider than a cross section of a respective transverse tube of the shirt collar.  
     
     
         12 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the hook means and the stiffener body of each collar stay lie in a generally common plane.  
     
     
         13 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the hook means of each collar stay are oriented in a common direction to resist sliding movement of the stiffener body relative to the shirt collar in one direction only.  
     
     
         14 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein all respective forward edges of the hook means and the stiffener body of each collar stay are tapered rearwardly and outwardly from a central longitudinal axis of the stiffener body.  
     
     
         15 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the hook means of each collar stay project outwardly from one side only of the stiffener body.  
     
     
         16 . The shirt collar according to  claim 15  wherein each stiffener body includes a straight edge along an outer side thereof opposite the hook means.  
     
     
         17 . The shirt collar according to  claim 9  wherein the collar body is formed of knitted fabric material in which the transverse tubes are integrally knit.  
     
     
         18 . The shirt collar according to  claim 17  wherein the hook means of each collar stay is wider than a respective transverse tube of the collar body in a relaxed position of the knitted fabric material by approximately 0.5 millimetres.  
     
     
         19 . The shirt collar according to  claim 17  wherein the stiffener body of each collar stay is narrower than a respective transverse tube of the collar body in a relaxed position of the knitted fabric material by approximately 0.5 millimetres.  
     
     
         20 . The shirt collar according to  claim 17  wherein the knitted fabric material forming the elongate collar body includes a plurality of wales in the form of chained loops extending generally perpendicularly to a longitudinal direction of the collar body, the transverse tubes of the collar body lying generally parallel to the wales at the ends of the collar body.