If you look at a man and woman’s dress shirts, you’ll notice that the buttons are on opposite sides. For men, the buttons are on the right, and you thread that through the hole on the left. For women’s shirts, its the opposite. I once heard that it is because men, back in the old days (whenever that was) put on their own shirts, thus the right hand/right side button locations. Women, however, were dressed by servants or slaves, so the buttons were located on the other side. Is this really true? If not, why the difference?
I don’t know how poor women with no slaves dressed, presumably they wore buttonless clothes or ran around naked
I read once (no cite) that men’s shirts have their buttons arranged in a way that allowed them to button the shirt with the left hand, while holding the sword in the right.
Women could unbutton the shirt with the right hand, while holding the baby in the left arm.
Poor people presumably wore clothes with a sensible number of buttons, or none at all. I’ve heard a variant of this that clothes that buttoned were expensive, and the poor people in 13th century Europe couldn’t afford them. They continued to wear smock type garments that they pulled over their heads, or garments which were tied or pinned shut.
The hypothesis that buttons were on garments for the luxury class and that men of that class had their clothes laid out for them but that women had maidservants who dressed them, so buttons on women’s clothes were placed for the ease of a right handed maidservant, is what I have heard and believe.
Yeah, I wondered about that even as I was quoting it (I was quoting for the general point to be made, not the particulars, namely that rich people in 13-16th century Europe were button-crazy, and wore lots of buttons to show off). If true, I’ll bet a lot of them were purely decorative, and didn’t fasten. I admit, it STILL sounds impossible.
In a thread a few months back (can’t search for it yet), I cited a historical article about immigration and domestic servants. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the most common profession for unmarried young women was “domestic servant”; it was a way to bring in extra money for the family, and usually get free room and board as well. Maybe it was the rise of industry that led to extra household income or something, but suddenly there was a boom in hiring young women, many of them recent immigrants, to take care of the household chores. I believe that at one point, 10% of American homes had at least one full-time domestic servant.
My own theory, which may be a partial consideration: Many of today’s dresses and blouses have a zipper in the back. Most women can reach around and zip up partially, then need someone’s assistance to finish the job. Before there were zippers, there were buttons, and I imagine many women wore dresses or blouses that buttoned up the back. Both the woman and whoever finished the job would need them to button the other way.
Are belt buckles also worn on different sides? When I am putting on a belt, I first run it through the loops on the left side, then around the back and through the loops on my right side. Then I buckle up, leaving the end or tip of the belt on the left.
How about you men?
Do any of you women wear it with the buckle on the right?
I run the belt through the loops on the right first. I’ve never heard of belt sides before, maybe its just the preference of the person. Are you left handed?
