Hi, I'm Kirby Allison,
and we love helping the well-dressed
take care of their wardrobes.
In today's video,
I'm going to share with you my personal collection
of cufflinks
and talk to you a little bit about the various
types of construction
and styles.
If you have any questions
or comments in this video please ask them
in the comments section below.
I enjoy getting back to all those questions
personally.
One of the beautiful things about cufflinks is
that they're one of the few opportunities
for a gentleman to wear jewelry in good
taste, but also they present
an incredible opportunity to display
your individual style.
In fact some gentlemen are so
well known for the types
and styles of cufflinks that they wear
that they become their signature.
I have cufflinks that I've inherited from
my grandfather, Daddyboy,
that I'll pass on to my own children
which is another special thing
about developing a collection of cufflinks
over one's lifetime.
Cufflinks come in several different types of constructions.
The most common type of construction you'll
find is the swivel back.
This allows for a cufflink to
feature just one side of jewelry,
and because this barbell can
be swiveled,
it's very easy to insert it
through the cuff.
The problem with the swivel back
is that you end up
with one side of the cufflink that doesn't
have any type of ornamentation
or jewelry.
Which brings me to the next few
styles that I personally enjoy
more.
The next style is what is
called the chain construction.
Now the chain construction just has a simple
chain that links the two sides.
This is more commonly seen
with jewelry on both sides,
which I prefer.
But again,
it is a looser construction
and doesn't really secure
the french cuff as much
as a solid shank.
Now here we have a pair of our Codis Maya
cufflinks that we sell here at The
Hanger Project. Beautiful enamel motif,
a solid shank.
But again, it doesn't have any type
of ornamentation on the back.
And finally, my favorite style of
cufflink is cufflinks
with a solid curved shank,
but more importantly,
with jewelry on both sides.
Inevitably, whenever you're wearing cufflinks,
the jewelry at the top is the
most visible
but you still very easily see the
jewelry at the bottom of the cuff,
and that's why my favorite cufflinks
are those with curved shanks
and jewelry on both sides.
And lastly,
you have your more common
silk knot cufflinks.
Now these are just fabric knots
that have an elastic shank
and these come in many different styles
and colors.
Although silk knots are most commonly thought
of as an informal cufflink,
a silk knot in a beautiful silver
and black could be very elegantly
worn even
with black tie.
So next day I'll share
with you my personal collection of cufflinks
and talk a little bit about how
and where I wear them.
Some of my most special cufflinks are
associated with a story
or a memory.
And of course my most cherished
are the ones that I inherited from my grandfather,
Daddyboy,
whom you heard me speak about in my watch
collection video.
My grandfather Daddyboy was a prominent
car dealer in Houston
during the 1980s
and you can see
with his Cufflinks right here,
that he has some that really pay homage
to that career.
One of his more interesting cufflinks this
is one that is a reproduction of his
business card.
And again you can see that this is so old
that it has a five digit phone number.
One of my favorite pairs,
the pair that I was wearing whenever I got married,
is this cameo motif
of a Ford Model T set
in a beautiful recessed engraving
of roses.
This is an absolutely beautiful cufflink,
and one that is very special
and also reflects a characteristic of
his life that was very personal to him.
I also have a set of cufflinks from my grandfather
that was given to him as an award
for being inducted into the Ford
vice presidents club in the
early 1980s.
This is just another example of kind
of the story behind cufflinks.
Not only
are they things that you buy throughout a lifetime,
but you can also receive them as very special
gifts which celebrate milestones
in one's life.
Right here you can see a set
of 18 carat white gold
and yellow gold cufflinks that my wife
actually gave me for Christmas while we were
dating that feature
a hanger cameo.
I particularly enjoy wearing these,
again just because not only
were there gift from my beautiful wife
whom I was dating at the time,
but I also like them because they pay homage
to how I began
The Hanger Project. And then finally,
some of my most formal cufflinks,
certainly some that I consider to be
amongst my most beautiful,
are these Lapis Lazuli Golden
Acorn Cufflinks that again,
my wife designed for me,
and gave to me as a gift for one of my birthdays.
But I liked them so much,
that we now carry these on The
Hanger Project. I love these golden acorn cufflinks
so much that I had a set of matching
dress studs designed
that I could wear
with formal black tie.
You can find these on The Hanger Project sold
individually or also as a complete set.
And one of my most recent additions
is another cufflink that is very
similar and designed to the golden
acorn, but has an interesting
flower design
with dark green
jade.
Again it has the jewelry on both sides
with a nice curved shank
made in 18 carat gold
and I'm proud to announce in this video that we
just had these reproduced
and are now making them available to you
on The Hanger Project
Cufflinks can also indicate membership
in an organization.
At my club in London,
at our annual meeting,
you'll oftentimes find a lot of members
wearing their club
cufflinks or their club tie
and it's just something that we do for camaraderie
and to indicate that we are all members
of the same organization.
Personally whenever I'm in Texas,
I really prefer to wear
barrel cuffs
but whenever I'm traveling to New York
or London or on Sunday when
going to church,
I really take it as an opportunity to
bring out my small,
but growing collection of cufflinks
Just like with pocket squares,
I really encourage you,
if you're not someone that is wearing
cufflinks that often to experiment
with expanding the occasions
in which you wear them.
I enjoyed sharing with you my cufflink collection.
As I mentioned many of these cufflinks are available
on hangerproject.com.
Take a moment to check out our collection
of cufflinks on hangeproject,com.
If you have any questions
or comments about anything we discussed in this
video, please ask them in the comments
section below.
And more importantly,
if you have any stories about your own collection
of cufflinks
or any cufflinks that are just particularly
special to you,
please share those.
I'd love to hear those stories.
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I'm Kirby Allison,
and we love helping the well-dressed take
care of their wardrobes.
Thanks for joining.