Arrow Dress Collars and Shirts Canvas Print

Arrow Dress Collars and Shirts by J. C. Leyendecker

The Arrow Collar Man was an early 20th-century sex symbol who, in his day, had about as large a place in the pantheon of hotness as Rudolph Valentino, Elvis, and the Marlboro man. This sophisticated yet implicitly sybaritic sex symbol hawked the wares of the Troy, New York–based Cluett, Peabody & Co., Inc., purveyors of detachable crisp collars and cuffs, which men attached to the body of their dress shirts. The Arrow Collar Man predates Jay Gatsby by 20 years, and, critics believe, is referenced when Daisy Buchanan says to Gatsby: “You always look so cool. You resemble the advertisement of the man . . . you know, the advertisement of the man.”

“The man,” chiseled, detached, suave, and handsome beyond belief, was selling “not just a shirt but the promise of urban sophistication,” says biographer Deborah Solomon. So potent was the Arrow Collar Man’s All-American allure that the company is said to have...