When I make blouses, shirts, or men's shirts, I always ask myself the question: So, which side should I place the buttons on the button placket?
Yes, there is a convention regarding the direction, and it differs between men and women! Had you noticed?
This week, I invite you to dive into the history of the buttonhole to remember forever which way to place them!
Current direction of placement
The buttoning of men's and women's shirts is reversed.
Men's shirts open to the left. Women's shirts and blouses open to the right; which means that for women, the buttons are on the left, and for men, on the right.
A bit of history to understand...
To understand this difference, we need to go back to the 13th century, the time when buttons were invented. At that time, only the elite and wealthy bourgeois could afford the luxury of having buttons on their clothes; this is very important for the rest of the explanation...
Indeed, let's start with women... Noblewomen or those with a high social status in society at the time did not dress themselves. They had a servant to help them get dressed, to put on the different layers of clothing that made up their outfit.
Since the majority of the population was right-handed, it was easier for the servants to fasten a shirt with the buttons on the right when standing in front of their mistress.
On the other hand, men had simpler outfits to put on by themselves, and they only involved their servant at the end of dressing. Men therefore buttoned their own clothes, with the pretty buttons placed on the right and the buttonholes sewn on the left. The fact that the servant was right-handed had no influence. Moreover, noblemen of the time wore swords, and it was obvious that they needed to keep their hand free at all times to draw their weapon without the shirt hindering the movement. So, it was the left hand’s task to quickly unbutton a jacket that would have restricted their movements. Apparently, this is easier to do if the left side of the garment overlaps the right side.
Over the centuries, fashion designers have adopted this clothing tradition, passed down from generation to generation, even though today the vast majority of women dress themselves and men no longer carry swords.
And what about fly openings, is it the same explanation?
Not quite!
It’s a much more recent story since trousers are a much more contemporary piece of women’s wardrobes... we had to wait for the "liberation" of minds and morals as well as the invention of the zipper. Indeed, the fly was originally mainly useful for men to relieve themselves without completely removing their trousers, but for women,... it had no use. Therefore, the first women’s trousers did not have a fly but closed only with a zipper placed on the left.
And for men, the fly opens on the right, simply to make it easier for men to relieve themselves in the restroom! Apparently, it’s easier this way for gentlemen... we’ll leave it to them to judge for themselves.
At the end of World War II, women demanded the right to wear trousers for all and the famous American jeans! To distinguish women’s models from men’s and to keep the distinctive look of jeans, the fly was then placed on the left for women’s models. Q.E.D!
Since then, this stylistic convention has weakened, and it is now increasingly common to find women’s jeans with a right-side opening and vice versa for men.
I hope you enjoyed this little moment of history!
Get your needles ready so you never get the buttoning direction wrong again!
