Not anymore, but when collars were first added to clothing it was for comfort. It was in the mid 1400s, and clergy wore really stiff tunics with high necks, so they started wearing collared shirts underneath them for comfort. Shirts were also exclusively undergarments at the time.
After those came the big ruffly Elizabethan collars for wealth/status symbols, then detachable collars (shirts were still underwear!), and then WWI happened, and soldiers were issued soft shirts instead of stiff outer clothes as outerwear since it was more practical. That then leads us to the collared shirts of today because that preference came to civilian life from the war.
Collars are for comfort. A fold of fabric feels better on your skin than a seam or a fabric edge.
Collars have a seam in the same place as something like a t-shirt. I even find polos to be less confortable than a t-shirt around the neck.
Collars exist to keep neckties from being directly on the skin, and that would be uncomfortable.
That doesn’t really track since a T-shirt is more comfortable than a collared shirt.
Not anymore, but when collars were first added to clothing it was for comfort. It was in the mid 1400s, and clergy wore really stiff tunics with high necks, so they started wearing collared shirts underneath them for comfort. Shirts were also exclusively undergarments at the time.
After those came the big ruffly Elizabethan collars for wealth/status symbols, then detachable collars (shirts were still underwear!), and then WWI happened, and soldiers were issued soft shirts instead of stiff outer clothes as outerwear since it was more practical. That then leads us to the collared shirts of today because that preference came to civilian life from the war.