The Arrow Collar Man was an advertising icon and creation of Saturday Evening Post commercial illustrator J.C. Leyendecker. Commissioned in 1905 by Cluett, Peabody & Company under its Arrow Collar brand out of Troy , New York, Leyendecker was already famous for his commercial illustrations. From 1905 to 1930 the Arrow Collar Man was a square jawed paragon of the Anglo-Saxon American man that new American's and current one's strived to be like and who women of the era adored. This advertising icon inspired everything from broadway musicals and daily fan mail to $32 million in collar and shirt sales by 1918 which at the time was unheard of. It's estimated that around 4 million shirts were manufactured weekly by 1920. Nowadays over 100 years after the Arrow Man's conceit the majority of men do not use detachable collars... The Arrow Man simply faded out and the style waned by 1930 with a vast change not only in American spending but in attire altogether. As the Great Depression hit more and more men were turning in their detachable collars for a less formal look, ready to work the fields and mills, and so was the dawn of a new era of clothing of a simpler more functional aesthetic. I think it's still good to remember this icon and to keep marketing and advertising figures like this in our minds in regards to the history of menswear... As things cycle and old becomes new it's always great to take a look back at our history... The Arrow Man without a doubt always reminds me of an F.Scott Fitzgerald novel, the Jazz Age and the roaring 20's. 
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