Wearing jacket cuff buttons undone

[imported_Daddy_O]

Personal choice

I have a different take on the sleeve button issue.

Most of my closet is bespoke, from suits to shirts to shoes. Most of my suits have functioning sleeve buttons. I like them because I have always thought it silly to have faux buttons on sleeves. I generally wear at least one or two buttons undone as it allows more room for my shirt cuffs to move and it makes it easier to check the time on my bulky watch that barely fits under my shirt as it is. To me this is no different than leaving the bottom button on the jacket unbuttoned or letting the lapel on my three button suits roll down to the second button. It is more about being relaxed and comfortable in my clothes.

A secondary consideration is that while I pride myself on being impeccably turned out, I don't like to appear stiff - so I often leave a different number of buttons unbuttoned on each sleeve (usually in favor of giving my watch more room). I like to think it shows that I don't take myself too seriously.

I do agree that it is in poor taste for someone to fiddle with their sleeve buttons for the purpose of showing off their tax bracket, but I would also give someone the benefit of the doubt and allow that they may just not be comfortable in their own skin. There is no need to draw that much attention to sleeve buttons if you want people to know you spent a mortgage payment on your suit. There are several other details in the construction that would identify the suit as bespoke to the discerning eye.

In short: custom clothes good, showing off bad.

 

[metropd]

Douglas Fairbanks?

 

[Micawber]

No, David Niven.

 

[H.Johnson]

Douglas Fairbanks?

UH???

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Unbuttoning the cuffs to show that it is an expensive suit is undeniably vulgar, as is doing anything for the sole purpose of displaying wealth.

Unbuttoning the cuffs because you like the way it looks is not.

The definitive answer. Stop asking.

 

[Tomasso]

The definitive answer.

Does such even exist?

Stop asking.

Sorry, I cant do this; I was raised by the Jesuits.[huh]

 

[Max Flash]

I thought it was because in the days before central heating, men would not wish to take off their jackets in the home, and if they had to do any washing up or something else, they could just roll up the sleeves?

I don't know for sure, but I would have thought the clue was in the name: "surgeon's cuffs". Surgeons would presumably roll up their sleeves to avoid their cuffs getting covered with blood?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Military surgeons. Working buttons made it easier to roll up sleeves of tunic.

This, at least, is the standard explanation as i've always heard it. Surely no reasonable civilian surgeon would be performing without some kind of protective equipment? "I've got a difficult and splattery surgery today: I shall wear the Poole chalk stripe, i think … "

bk

 

[Max Flash]

Military surgeons. Working buttons made it easier to roll up sleeves of tunic.

This, at least, is the standard explanation as i've always heard it. Surely no reasonable civilian surgeon would be performing without some kind of protective equipment? "I've got a difficult and splattery surgery today: I shall wear the Poole chalk stripe, i think … "

bk

Well, at one point civilian surgeons often had no medical training (they were sometimes even barbers). They would still have maintained standards of dress in accordance with the standards of their time, and so would not necessarily even have taken their jackets off, although I suspect they may have donned an apron.

Not all surgery is necessarily messy - you may not want to have your cuffs in the way when performing smaller or more delicate operations.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

I thought it was because in the days before central heating, men would not wish to take off their jackets in the home, and if they had to do any washing up or something else, they could just roll up the sleeves?

It seems to me unbuttoning eight buttons, rolling up the sleeves, washing your hands and then rolling down and rebuttoning would take way, way, way longer than just taking off the jacket.

 

[LondonLuke]

It seems to me unbuttoning eight buttons, rolling up the sleeves, washing your hands and then rolling down and rebuttoning would take way, way, way longer than just taking off the jacket.

Again, without central heating that may not be something the surgeon would wish to do in the middle of winter