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Fashion sleuths reveal unusual reason buttons on men’s shirts are always on the right… and women’s are on the left
- Internet experts revealed why men’s and women’s buttons are on opposite sides
- The tailoring secret is a legacy of clothes worn by women in the Victorian era
Internet experts have revealed the unusual reason men’s buttons and women’s buttons are on opposite sides.
A person on Reddit asked the question as to why the buttons on women’s clothes are on the left while buttons on men’s clothes are on the right.
A knowledgeable Reddit user in turn chimed in with a surprising answer that referenced the history of buttons on clothes.
The user explained that in the Victorian era women would often have maids and house staff to help them get dressed.
As the majority of people are right handed, the buttons on women’s clothes were put on the opposite, left hand side to help servants carry out their work.
A person on Reddit asked why women’s buttons are on the left and men’s buttons are on the right (File photo: A woman wears a man’s shirt)
Servants were often used because the clothes worn by wealthy Victorian era women were often made up of multiple layers.
Those layers included undergarments, corsets, petticoats, and multiple layers of dresses – which often all had buttons themselves.
Men, meanwhile, have generally dressed themselves, meaning buttons on their clothes are designed to be done up by the wearer on their own.
‘Men’s clothing buttons are aligned so they can easily dress themselves,’ Reddit user way2funni said.
The internet expert explained women in the Victorian era would often have maids to help them dress
‘Victorian era women in the upper classes routinely had maids and handmaidens to dress them.’
‘So the button placement was for them (not the wearer) to facilitate ease in dressing a lady who may have multiple layers of clothing, many of which had their own set of buttons,’ the Redditor explained.
The legacy of the Victorian era dressing practices were described as having ‘stuck’ over the past century even though most people now dress themselves.
The question has, however, been raised multiple times before, with various theories having been put forward as to why it remains the case.
Women in the Victorian era would often wear multiple layers that required help to put on
Historians have said men’s buttons being on the right side of their shirts may be a legacy of the way suits of armour were designed in the Middle Ages.
In their book ‘The Art of Chivalry’, historians Helmut Nickel, Stuart Pyhrr and Leonid Tarassuk say the designs are based on those used to protect knights in warfare.
‘To ensure an enemy’s lance point would not slip between the plates, they overlapped from left to right,’ the historians say.
‘Thus men’s jackets button left to right even to the present day.’
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