Detachable collars and cuffs were popular because they added colour and decoration to the plainest of outfits. They were frequently used by the embroiderers of the Glasgow School of Art and existing photographs show the most famous exponents, Jessie Newbery and Anne Macbeth, dressed in examples of their own work.

This collar and belt (see also museum no. Circ.190-1953) are meticulously made. The collar fastens with a hand-made drawstring looped through an embroidered border at the neck edge. The cord passes through specially worked detached eyelet holes, finished off with glass beads. Similarly, the belt fastens with four metal-set glass bead fasteners (one missing). Newbery used Pearsall's Mallard Floss silks in her work.

Both items show a characteristic pattern of 'Glasgow' roses. However, the shape of the collar is evolved from Renaissance design. Jessie Newbery was greatly interested in the decoration of this period and her own wedding dress, which she designed in 1889, was based on a St Ursula's dress in Carpaccio's painting (Accademia, Venice). Newbery believed design to be the most important element in her work. Despite being highly stylised, her patterns are based on her lifelong interest in botany. Each element was reduced to a geometrical, almost abstract shorthand which helped evolved the Glasgow style.