Button Placement On Men's Clothing - Why Are Buttons On The Right Side Man Style Tips
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, we're going to be talking about button placement.
Which side on a man's garment should your buttons be on?
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Okay.
The question that came in, "Antonio, I enjoyed reading your articles on men's suits and I
found them quite informative.
However, I was disappointed," such a strong word, "that the article did not state on which
side of the jacket the buttons should be placed.
This is a point of water cooler conversation in our office today.
Can you help us understand this?
Have a lovely day."
Well, that's a good question because oftentimes we see things in clothing and we're like,
"Why don't they just reverse that?
Why don't they change that?"
If any of you guys follow my videos, you know I like to change little bits on my clothing.
People ask me about my colors or my lapel styles, why I've got perhaps certain buttons.
Those little details matter, and by the way, they're on the right side, so any men's jacket
should have the button right here on the right side, the same with your shirt and the same
with most pants, if you look at them.
So why are buttons on the right side?
Three reasons:
1.
History
It started off that way.
Most men are right-handed and it used to be that you would reach over -- you carried your
weapon over here on the left hand, which was at that time probably a sword or some type
of weapon that you'd reach over cross-body and pull it out, so that is why the button
placement is -- or it initially started off.
It probably hasn't mattered too much throughout history, although I'm sure there's one guy
that he put his buttons on the wrong side and he went over to reach over and misgrabbed
a sword and somebody cut him in half or something.
Sure, it's out there, but that was initially why designers decided to go with the right
side.
2.
Habit
The other one of why we do it nowadays, habit.
It's just the way that we have always done it and we continue to do it.
I like to challenge these things though sometimes because it really is -- well, why continue
to do it if the function is no longer there?
But then again, you look at most clothing and it's simply we've done it this way, so
we'll continue to do it that way, really a lack of creativity, although there's something
to be said about something that works.
3.
Rise of unisex clothing
The third reason is the rise of unisex clothing, so it used to be very clear.
Something was made for a man; something was made for a woman.
But nowadays, you can go into a thrift store and you can find a great trench coat.
Let's say you're a smaller man.
You're 5'6" and you're 125 lbs, and you put this on.
It looks great, but how do you know this trench coat isn't actually made for a woman?
All the tags are gone.
It's kind of worn and it feels and looks great, but how do you know this isn't made for the
opposite sex?
The way you can tell is simply look at the button placement.
A trench coat that's made for a woman is going to have the buttons on the left side and it's
really a mirror opposite of a trench coat made for a man.
Now, is anyone going to notice?
Most people will not.
You could probably get away with it especially if it's a classic trench made by Burberry
or something like that, but it is something that people that are paying attention to those
little details will notice.
And so, you would probably want to take that beautiful trench coat and either buy it and
give it to a woman in your life, or just pass on it because you don't want to be wearing
women's clothing.
If you do, well, there are other websites for that kind of stuff.
Okay guys, hopefully that answers the question.
You guys can move on to something else around the water cooler there.
If you've got a question, go ahead and send it to me.
I've got this website called Men's Style Q&A.
Hopefully you've heard of it.
I'm trying to send people to that site to ask questions, or just go check out all my
articles over at Real Men Real Style, A Tailored Suit, and all the other websites I run.
There are too many more, but I'm trying to build a few more.
I will see you guys in the next video.
Bye-bye.