What to wear with a tab shirt?

[Cephas]

OK - I am not a member of the clergy, so have no knowledge of the tabbed shirt mentioned. Is this the proper name for the shirt worn pretty much world-wide by priests?

Other than the small square of white shown at the neck, isn't it just like any other shirt?

Is there some other factor here that is not being addressed?

Where my confusion comes up is - couldn't any nice coat cut for a kilt be worn?

There are a number of different collars for clergy depending on the church (thescot has some nice links in his note).

They are usually the same as a normal shirt except for the collar (either the tab or an actual collar that goes onto the shirt) and the fact that they are usually black or some solid colour (blue and grey are most common but they come in many colours some of which mean things depending on the church) instead of white- I have a white one but it is really hard to see a white collar in a white shirt so I rarely wear it.

So as long as your coat fits the colour of the shirt and the kilt you should be okay. A bit more a consideration than wearing a white shirt IMHO. And probably why so many clergy go for a dark jacket...

[James MacMillan]

This is probably way too much information, but you did ask!

And, BTW, I agree that an argyle style would look excellent with a tab or ful collar. I wear a full collar when called upon to do so, in either gray or black, and it always looks sharp with a kilt.

I agree, and thanks!!!

[auld argonian]

The "notched" collar that we see here has always been referred to as a "Roman Collar" hereabouts. The collar where a white band goes all the way around the top of the shirt has been referred to as a "Parson's Collar".

You can't go wrong with basic black. Let's not forget that the adoption of the religious habit is meant to signify, if not a rejection of worldliness, then a de-emphasis of it. Once upon a time anything but black was only allowed for missionaries in tropical places where a black habit would have turned them into mobile solar ovens.

There are a couple of variations on the shape of the collar in some of the Roman Catholic religious orders. The Christian Brothers, for example, wear a collar with a sort of a split white dickey depending from the notch. One could always spot different orders by the collar variations. Nowadays, I think that they try to keep it simple.

Best

AA

[ardchoille]

Thank for all the replies I found a couple nice jackets and am going to attempt to customise them using some of the DIY threads. I used to hate sewing but I'm looking forward to this as a fun project.

These boards ROCK!

[Coemgen]

Actually, that is not a tab collar. That's a full collar with rabat, I think. A rabat is a vest like article that has a stand up, split collar showing the white full collar.

Go here and scroll down: http://www.almy.com/rabats.html

A tab collar is exactly that: a stand-up collar with slits into which you place a white tab that leaves a little white square.

You can see tab collars here: http://www.almy.com/menshirt.html

This is probably way too much information, but you did ask!

And, BTW, I agree that an argyle style would look excellent with a tab or ful collar. I wear a full collar when called upon to do so, in either gray or black, and it always looks sharp with a kilt.

Well, if you're going to split hairs, I'm going to leave!