In my Staple post about the dress shirt, I talked about the relationship between a man’s face shape and the spread of his collar. However, this only corresponds with face shape. If a man has a noticeably long or short neck, he’ll also need to purchase a collar that will help with those proportions.

Thankfully, this is pretty easy. If your neck is long, you need a tall collar.

You don’t want to look like Ichabod Crane poking out of your shirt. A taller collar will keep everything else proportional and will continue to draw the focus to your face instead of your neck.

If your neck is short, then you need a small collar.

Same principle applies. If a regular collar looks like it’s about to swallow your chin, then tone it down with a shorter option.

With the current trend in menswear being everything getting smaller, it’s a lot easier for the short-necked man to find his option than the brontosauri amongst us. If you do know where to find a good shirt with a tall collar, let us know in the comments.