Camp collar

Lay a camp collar flat against the shoulders and the whole point of the design shows: it's cut in one piece with the front placket, has no collar stand underneath it, and falls open at the neck without a top button to close it. That flat, notched shape is what gives resort shirts, bowling shirts, and casual staff uniforms their relaxed, open-necked look.

Brands like Cubavera and Port Authority build entire camp shirt lines around this collar because it works with or without an undershirt and never needs ironing to look finished — a real advantage for restaurant and retail uniform programs where staff dress themselves before every shift. A camp collar shirt also drapes better over an embroidered chest logo than a stiff button-down collar does, since there's no bulky stand competing with the stitching.

Because a camp collar has no stand and no interfacing layer to hide behind, embroidery placed near the neckline has to account for the collar lying flat against the placket rather than standing up around it. Pros usually keep left-chest designs a bit lower on these shirts than they would on a dress-collar style, so the artwork doesn't crowd the open notch.

Buyers sometimes assume a camp collar is just a cheaper version of a dress shirt collar missing its stand. It's the opposite — a deliberate, one-piece construction meant to lie flat, not a stand-up collar built wrong. Ordering one and expecting it to press like an oxford button-down is the real mistake.