Why do men and women's shirts button on different sides?
Jani
Richmond, Virginia
Dear Jani:
While we didn't manage to isolate a definitive answer for this question, we learned plenty about the tricky relationship between exigency and style. For example, this lengthy article on button conventions suggests that in the 19th century, well-heeled Victorian women generally didn't dress themselves, so their buttons were designed to be handled by right-handed servants. Although wealthy men may have had servants to lay out their clothes, they generally dressed themselves, and so the buttons on the right side of men's garments made more sense.
A Yahoo! Search on "button history" also led us to Benjamin "Good Advice Is Timeless!" Dover of the Dallas Morning News. Mr. Dover notes that the first button jackets for men were modeled after the latching designs of armor, which were designed to stop a right-handed opponent from jamming a pike through the seam. He also suggests that the left-side buttons on women's clothes may have been intended to facilitate nursing an infant on the side closest to the woman's heart.
Jeff Elder of the Charlotte Observer (who has one of the greatest byline photos we've ever witnessed) suggests that men's coats were designed to make it easier for them to unbutton their coats with their left hand while drawing their swords with their right.
In general, we gleaned that European men tended to take their plumage cues from the military, while women's clothing arose out of domestic concerns. For more facts about couture and where it came from, check out the Fashion History category in the Yahoo! Directory.
Buttoning Conventions
http://histclo.hispeed.com/mat/tech/but/but-con.html Why Do Men's and Women's Shirts Button Differently, Anyway?
http://www.bendover.com/askbenquestion.asp?faq=3&fldAuto=133&chapter_fldAuto=15 Men's and women's different buttons
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/charlotte/news/columnists/jeff_elder/7071830.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp