Hello! I'm Sven Raphael Schneider the founder of the Gentleman's Gazette and Fort
Belvedere, and today, I'm going to talk about boutonnieres.
Yes, those little lapel flowers. And I'm going to tell you how to wear them, why men wear
them, and how not to wear them. Alright! Let's start a little bit with the
history. There are various theories about boutonnieres and who invented them and who
wore them first. It dates all the way back to the fifteenth century when people in Naples
had flowers, but it's not really clear whether that's true or not.
The first time we saw some evidence was in a painting from Gainsborough in 1771 when
you could actually see a lapel flower in a buttonhole because at that time, jackets didn't
really have lapels; they were just buttoned up high and that's how the lapel eventually
developed but that's an entirely different story and I'm not going to go into too much
detail today. If you're a history buff and you'd like to
learn about the entire history of the boutonniere, please check out my article that deals with
it in all details. Alright! Enough talk about history! Let's
talk about boutonnieres. First of all - what you should never, ever do, no matter whether
it's real or not, and pin it on your lapel [sic] because that's just not the way it's
done and it looks odd, especially if you have a shiny, metal part there that reflects the
light. People are more prone to look at your flower than looking at your face.
The reason we dress up is so we wear the clothes and the people see that and the clothes should
never wear us. Alright! Rule number one: Don't pin a flower onto your lapel. So now how do
you wear it? Ideally, you should wear it always through your buttonhole.
As you can see here, there's a buttonhole and it's open because it's actually a real
buttonhole so that's how you're supposed to wear it. [The] flower goes through... Alright.
Alright! What do you do if your jacket has no buttonhole? Well, in that case, I would
suggest you go to an alterations tailor and have one sewn in because that's what you need.
It's traditional because it actually evolved as top buttonhole that would be buttoned.
And people would flap open their lapel, and that's how it came to be there.
And that's the only place you can wear it. So if you don't have one, go to an alterations
tailor and have one made. Now, if you buy a jacket off the rack, it often has a buttonhole
sewn, but it's sewn shut. So, what you have to do then, is you have to open it.
And... you need a knife - a little pocket knife. Or a box cutter, or maybe a sharp razor
blade. Of course, be careful. Don't cut yourself. But I've done it really often for other people,
even on wedding days, and it always works like a charm; no problem. So have your knife,
ideally a small knife or a small pair of scissors. Locate your buttonhole. Look at it. Is there
any opening? In this case, it's kind of a keyhole and it has a little opening. So, I
start carefully. I look that I don't damage the threads of the buttonhole. And you can
see: I cut it neatly open. I don't cut it too far because I don't want to ruin the seam
of the buttonhole. Alright, once you have an open buttonhole
on your jacket, the flower is just put through. So you have it like this. And now it's in
the back. And you put through the flower. The procedure is the same with real flowers
or silk flowers that we have here from Fort Belvedere. It's always the same procedure.
The idea is you have a protector or a "stem keeper" in the back of your lapel so your
lapel stem doesn't hang out of your lapel. Like, in this case, I left it on there so
you see, you don't want to have that happen with your boutonnieres. That's why you really
want this stem keeper and if you don't have one, please check out my article with detailed
instructions on how to make one yourself. If you don't want to do that, your alterations
tailor could do it. Or if you're in a position where you really don't have time and you need
a solution right away, get a simple safety pin. The safety pin helps and has the same
function. So all you do is, you open the safety pin.
Once it's opened, you just pin it through your lapel. Make sure it doesn't peek out
in the front. So, double check - nothing peeks out in the front! Then you close it at the
back. And now your boutonniere stem just goes through [...] there. Nobody's going to see
it from the front and you can easily remove it afterwards and it's very inexpensive and
you can always do it that way. It's a really great way to, yeah, get a quick solution - an
inexpensive solution and it works in any jacket, any time.
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