The design of the collar for the United States Marine Corps Male Officer Evening Dress jacket mirrors that of the sleeve ornamentation, with two rows of gold beads bordering the scarlet silk embroidery that runs along the collar’s top and vertical edges.
Both sides of the collar sport eyelets designed to hold dress-collar insignia, which consists of the Marine Corps emblem’s famous EGa—Eagle, Globe, and Anchor—minus the scroll inscribed “Semper Fidelis” being clutched in the eagle’s beak. The same insignia is worn on the USMC Dress Cap, but it’s slightly larger than the dress-collar insignia—cap devices are about 14/16th of an inch in diameter, while collar devices are only around 11/16th of an inch.
The collar’s design also hearkens back to the Corps’ nascent days and a 1776 Congressional mandate that USMC uniforms for both Officers and Enlisted personnel have a leather stock to be worn around the neck. In addition to providing protection from cutlass strikes, the stiff stock was an aid in helping Marines hold their heads in the proper military manner—and of course eventually led to the nickname “Leathernecks.” Use of the stock continued until after the Civil War, when it was replaced by a leather strip attached to the inside of the collar. Today, the only vestige of the stock is a stiff tab in the front of the collar.