It's because gentry had servants button women into their clothes.
this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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As a woman myself I find it easier to button my husband's shirt than my daughter's. Because my hands know how to do my own, facing in the opposite direction on my body.
When my dad taught me how to tie a neck tie, he had to do it from behind. He tried it facing me and just could not figure it out.
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I want my clothes to be put together with dovetail joints. Who do I go to for that?
Zippers are basically flexible dovetail joints. Take a look at one when it's done up.
You've got the same interlocking pattern often with fat tips
I wonder if there's a designer out there exclusively making clothes with zippers for all stitches.
in all honesty though i've had too many zippers get f'd up in effectively every hoodie and winter jacket i've owned. I need something a bit more reliable. Maybe the answer is human hair thread stitching or cast plates and chain stitching.
You mean Tetsuya Nomura?
Xyla Foxlin just made a dress out of wood laminate, so she's in the ballpark.
I love her!
That thing looks amazing. Now I just need a kilt version with some kind of shirt and blazer for formal events.
I think sitting might be difficult. Do people ever sit at galas? Might not be an issue, I'm too poor to know lol
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Jesus tapdancing Christ, that is so insanely cool. Xyla is amazing. The model was great, too, no shade on Xyla but it just looks better on dark skin imo.
We leave the last button undone on a suit to make a dead rich person not feel as bad about being obese.
A tie is a type of napkin.
The small pocket on some pants is for a pocket watch.
Shirt collars are for wind protection when lighting a cigarette.
Two different buttons on the sleeves of long sleeve shirts or jackets are for watches.
The hoop on some pants are for a hammer.
There's a lot of things made due to tradition and never updated.
I never go anywhere without my hammer and pocket watch.
Ladies had a maid, men buttoned themselves.
Thank you! Whole ass article for just one sentence.
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I'd like to point out that it makes undressing a person of the opposite button-direction easier. Because they're facing you but your finger muscles are trained from undressing yourself. So just maybe all the stuff about servants is bowdlerizing the real purpose. Nobody was helping lowerclass women, and rich men had valets.
Fashion always follows wealth. If rich people have their clothes made a certain way, regardless of function, everyone else will copy the form.
The article gives two explanations: women had servants to help them get dressed and men didn't, and men had to be able to draw a sword from their right hip without it getting stuck in clothes.
I find neither explanation very convincing.
It wasn't universally true that women had servants and men didn't. That may have been true for a specific time and social class, but poor women definitely didn't have servants; they were the servants. And kings and high nobles did have servants to help them get dressed. Sometimes it was an entire formal ritual.
Does being right handed matter? I'm left-handed, and I have no problem buttoning my shirt. It's really more a matter of what you're used to than which hand is dominant.
I find sword drawing slightly more convincing, at least if you look at the military uniforms of 200 years ago. Sables were still common, at least among officers and cavalry. And those uniforms definitely had buttons.
But then why would women have the opposite?
Another explanation for women's buttons is that they used to ride horses sideways. Sidesaddle is done with the right side facing the riding direction.
The would expose the button opening to the wind if they were placed on the right side like men's. With left side buttons, the fabric goes over the opening from right to left, thereby covering for the wind.
I don't find it too unconvincing. I mean after all, fashion follows the rich, so it wouldn't be out of the question to make clothes first for rich families with maids. We still wear our suit buttons "properly" to appease some fat old king.
To manufacture a disadvantage for them if they ever found themselves in a swordfight, of course
I find neither explanation very convincing.
very much agree the idea that this was driven solely by people who had help to dress them falls flat.
in the example of swords - if you were so dominant left handed, wouldn't the user reverse their scabbard / belt setup?
I noticed this with one of my kids shirts. The buttons are backwards for easy dressing. Doesn't explain half my zip hoodies which are the wrong way round however.
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The explanation I heard was that when seated at the table as traditional table partners, the woman should be to the right of the man. Having opposite button placement means you cannot look into the gaps between the buttons and accidentally get a glimpse of your partner's chest.
Traditionally, host and hostess are at opposite ends of the table, couples are separated and gender alternates.
Also, why would anyone care if you look at your wife's boobs?
Because sex is dirty and evil apparently and something bad that should only be done in the most unstimulating and quickest way just to procreate. Anything else is evil and gross and so alluring... I mean disgusting and awful.
This teaching definitely, absolutely doesn't come from insecure historic incels who only knew how to control and not love. Definitely not, this is absolutely from Heaven itself and should not be questioned.
This reminds me of the theory that anyone who thinks being gay is a choice is probably a suppressed bisexual.
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Yep. That totally makes sense from a time when everyone wore a dozen layers.
I was told the reason is so that men can better undress their female partners. Which is of course problematic, but I think a better explanation than "men dressed themselves, women didn't".
I was told the opposite - that females assisted men with getting dressed, so the buttons were the orientation they were used to on their own garments
My mom always loved this because she’s left-handed
But were her servants left handed?
No, we were all right handed
For a fun addition, because a lot of work clothes are unisex, women of today can get the fun experience of "which side are the fucking buttons on‽"
IIRC it all falls back to a time when men's and women's clothes were made and tailored by totally different groups of people, each of which established their own conventions and measurements, and nobody's been smart enough to change it to make sense in the last 2 centuries.
Oooh, now I'm curious which one it is that makes sense!
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Corner Gas had a whole episode where this was the punchline
so it's easier for a man to undress a woman but more difficult for a man to undress a man, right?
/s
Wasnt it so that it was easier for the woman to do up the man's buttons for them?
Because, real men don't button their own clothes.
I’d always heard it was the opposite. Women had help to get dressed so the buttons were positioned to make it easier for someone else but men had to do it themselves.
Women's clothing also tends to have fasteners in the back. Corsets, bras, dresses, etc. Not a woman but I have undone my fair share of garments.
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The article suggests that women had more complicated garb that required support staff.
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