Collars - Where did they come from?

CHENNAI: If not wearing a collared shirt could be reason enough to be thrown out of a social gathering, surely, there must be something about that piece of cloth around the neck that warrants so much importance and defines what formality is. While many history professors who spoke to City Express had no clue about the origin of the collar, encyclopedias reveal that their first avatars go back to 14th Century Europe. Their predecessors were the royal "ruffles" that were pleated and applied to garments. Elaborate decorations to the ruffle, sometimes decked with ornaments, was common among the aristocratic class, the encyclopedias reveal.  In the course of time, the collar took different forms, with the "pin-on" being a popular type in the 18th Century. These were comfortable versions to remove and starch. The stiffness of the collar was regarded as a sign of the individual's standing. By the 19th Century, at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, the collars were given an entirely different connotation. The terms "white-collar" and "blue-collar" began to emerge by the end of that century, where the former referred to the upper strata of industrial employees whereas the latter, the workers of the factories. As the 20th Century progressed, even crimes were given collar terms, with economic corruption which did not involve violence largely referred to as "white-collar crimes."