Guy comes into my store last week tries on a sport coat buttons it up stares in the mirror and goes “wait, why’s this on the wrong side? That’s a woman’s button.” No dude, that’s just how your buttons have always been. He didn’t realize. I mean this guy has been wearing jackets for twenty plus years and never once noticed which side his buttons were on until he looked in a big and tall store in Dallas.
See, that’s the thing about this question. People aren’t asking you because they notice when they’re walking down the street. They’re asking because they finally looked down, or their girlfriend was wearing a coat across the other way and it became apparent there was something different about their jackets.
It’s intentionally obvious but most people never take the time to observe it, and that’s why they ask.
The answer everybody gives you, and the part they leave out
Google it or ask ten people and you’ll get ten people who provide you the exact same answer. Men’s jackets button right over left because men once had to dress themselves, they were carrying swords, and a right handed man drawing his weapon desired his fighting hand crossing over to his dominant side where the blade hangs, on the left. But if his clothes were buttoned left over right he’d have to fumble with his jacket open himself before he could even access his weapon. Ladies being wealthy and wearing dresses that buttoned up were handed clothes by servants who found it easier to navigate buttons going left over right, or because it allowed for easier nursing with their right hand free, or some other bit of tailor history I learned a decade ago and forgot immediately after the test.
Pick your favorite. Doesn’t matter which one you read online first, there are variations of all of them floating around and not a single one of them comes with a source I can find. Look, I don’t think anybody alive can genuinely prove either side is accurate, that’s why they all tell the story with such confidence but zero footnote attached. What I do know from two decades of trying to fit humans into jackets is that the reason doesn’t matter nearly as much as I tell people the consequence does, because that consequence is something we still run into daily.
Some jacket somewhere is still sitting on a sale rack right now mocking us, waiting to be bought by someone that didn’t know any better and hop into that fitting room without any of us noticing. Jackets button how they do because enough people cared about the reason it happened way back when that when others questioned it, they were simply told “this is how it’s done.” The convention stuck and today nobody thinks to explain why.
It doesn’t matter that nobody likely duels anymore, doesn’t matter that most guys buying a sport coat this weekend couldn’t tell you their dominant hand if their lives depended on it, men’s jackets still button right over left because that’s how a man’s jacket buttons. Period. Full stop. End of story. There are exceptions but I can’t think of any that matter worth mentioning right now. Menswear loves to hold onto rules long after everyone who could care less about the reason suddenly cares about enforcing it. This is one of probably ten I could come up with just walking around the store on any given day.
Where this actually shows up, and the one time it should bother you.
Here’s the one place it matters and stop being tangentially interesting bar trivia. Customer of mine, big lad, wide across the chest. Built like he played the line in high school football and never stopped eating potato chips since, comes into the store with a jacket his wife had found online. Said it “felt weird” but he couldn’t place why. Put it on, and about four seconds in I know. It’s backwards, buttoned left over right. Intended for a woman, generous enough in the sizing that it worked for his chest and shoulder but he would’ve walked out with it had we not caught it first because he didn’t realize.
That, right there. That’s the only time this comes up. Catching women’s cuts on mens bodies before they walk out the door. Other than that? It doesn’t matter.
Once you put a jacket on it buttons either way you aren’t going to analyze which hand crosses your chest. You just button it and go buy groceries or wherever you were going. However, once you know what to look for? Once you understand that right over left is supposed to feel a certain way on your own frame, you’ll catch it quick and that does matter when you’re shopping for a larger body where there isn’t already a hill of clearance in good fitting jackets.
Want a fun tidbit to go with all that? Screw the sword story, left handed men have been buttoning their jackets right over left their whole lives without issue. I’ve put on enough jackets in my day to draw my own weapon and never once felt at a disadvantage being handed a coat because I might someday have to fight with it. The tradition out predates me caring whether or not it applies to me by far enough that it doesn’t care if you’re left-handed anymore.
Alright, rant over. Seriously though, the reason why we button how we do stopped mattering decades ago if it ever did at all. All that matters now is that we do.
Terry works a menswear shop floor in Newcastle and is a big and tall specialist himself. He writes about sizing that holds up, measures things before he believes the label, and has strong opinions about the phrase relaxed fit.
