For more fashion, grooming, and technology releases delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our GQ Recommends newsletter. When it comes to shirting, fabric changes everything. It’s often the difference between the most formal of shirts and those that you’d throw on with a pair of jeans. This is no different for grandad collar shirts, so fabric should arguably be the first thing you consider when looking to add one to your wardrobe. Rumour would have it that the grandad shirt's origins may well have only just predated your own grandfather. On the factory floor in the late 1920s, with flapping ties a safety hazard around heavy machinery, blue-collar workers were said to cut off the collars of their shirts. No wonder, then, that the style is particularly favoured among workwear brands today. Like their collared alternatives, grandad collar shirts are available in a myriad of materials. So it’s best to work out when and where you’re primarily going to wear it before deciding. Will it be a shirt you want to casually wear over chinos or shorts in summer? Or are you looking to wear it with unstructured tailoring to smarter occasions? You’ll want an entirely different shirt in either case.