(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

Did I miss a memo? Basically, it seems like every where I go these days, I see people with only the top or middle button of a suit jacket buttoned. Am I the only one who thinks this looks terrible? You have a closed suit, which is good, but then there's a little triangle of tie and shirt sticking out at the bottom. Is this fashionable these days, or am I just perpetually surrounded by people who don't have a clue? Last I checked, you were supposed to button the suit from the bottom up and never button all of the buttons.

Comments

[uncleamos]

I was always told to just button the top button.

[ultranurd.livejournal.com]

Ditto - but I think it looks better to button them all.

[shipwright.livejournal.com]

As someone who spent nearly every weekend of her adolescence wearing suits (and being around suit-wearing men and women), I can assure you that yes, these people are sadly misinformed (and very poorly-dressed).

Soldier on, thou Soldier of Good Taste.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That makes me feel better.

On a completely unrelated note, there a family friend who's interested in both Swat and Bio. Can I give her your e-mail address as someone to poke/talk to about both of these things?

[shipwright.livejournal.com]

Quite welcome.

I'd be very happy to talk to your friend, if she would like - you have my address, yes?

[carnap.livejournal.com]

The rule I was taught by the suit store is that you only button the top button (or top two buttons on a three-button suit). The third button always stays unbuttoned.

[via-milagrosa.livejournal.com]

You're just perpetually surrounded by people who don't have a clue.

The greater implications of this temporarily escape me, but I'm sure they must be there. ;)

[sonatanator.livejournal.com]

You're rule is upheld if you dress yourself standing on your head.

[sinsofthedove.livejournal.com]

That's certainly the impression I've always gotten. Your tie probably isn't supposed to stick out the bottom - more likely people are wearing ill-fitted suits.

I have researched!

[sinsofthedove.livejournal.com]

Two-button jacket: Button the top button, only, ever. Button the bottom button and you’ll look like a stooge. That’s really all there is to it.

Three-button jacket: Button either the middle button alone or the top two. Important: the bottom button does not meet its hole. It will plead before a date, just when your stomach’s boiling, ‘Hey! Friend! Button me once, please. I’m sure we’ll look fine. Come on! Just once!’ But you will not give in, you will be strong.

Thats from here

Re: I have researched!

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Indeed, this is what I have always heard as well (never, ever, under any circumstance, no matter what the voices tell you, should you button the bottom button). But there shouldn't be a triangle. But then, everyone should wear a waistcoat, of course. They've never gone out of fashion, it's just that society is filled with unfashionable people of late.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even if the bottom button is theoretically supposed to be unbuttoned, visible tie or shirt at the bottom looks dumb. Apparently the fashion of leaving the bottom button undone was started around the turn of the 20th century by Edward VII, who couldn't due to his girth; given that waistcoats were much more common back then, the tie and shirt sticking out may simply have not been a problem, since they would have been covered. Perhaps it's time for this particular fashoin to just die... either that, or for waistcoats to come back into style. :-)

(Personally, I generally button the bottom button, but then I also tend to wear jackets that are a bit larger than they should be around the waist, since I am a non-standard shape and I haven't gotten around to taking them in. And besides, I don't pay much attention to current fashion anyway, since I usually think that current fashion sucks.)

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also, I did find one source that suggested that shorter men leave the top button undone, to somehow make them look taller (by showing more shirt or something? I have no idea). So perhaps that's why you learned it that way, Mark.

[uncleamos]

Ha!

Re: I have researched!

[indecisionwins.livejournal.com]

I've also been told to only button the top button (or top two on a 3 button jacket). (And for the record, I'm pretty sure my grandparents would have been the ones to teach me this, and they have a much better idea of what's "appropriate" or "fashionable" than my parents. Which isn't hard to do, really. But, yeah...)

Re: I have researched!

[sinsofthedove.livejournal.com]

The past is always more fashionable. It's a rule.