In the past couple weeks I’ve seen this fashion item I’ve never encountered before. On a Human Target from early this season, Winston was wearing a dark suit with a bright yellow shirt. And on his lapel, there was like an extra tab, looked like it had a buttonhole in it, and it was the same color as his shirt.
Then on the latest Parks and Recreation, when Leslie was about to speak to all the local businesses, Ben was wearing a tweed jacket that had a similar doohickey. This one was just brown, so it blended in more.
What is this thing? I tried Googling every way I could, but didn’t see one.
If you do, then as far as I know, a “buttonhole tab” is what it’s called. On some jackets it allows you to close the jacket all the way to the neck (the original reason for the traditional buttonhole in the lapel) – but I’d imagine that in most cases (like the lapel buttonhole) it’s just a fashion detail.
Similar, but in both cases I’m talking about, it was within the lapel notch, lined up with the normal buttonhole in the lapel. It looked almost like it could be folded down behind the lapel and the two holes would line up.
My husband was indeed speculating that it was a method for closing the collar all the way up to one’s chin.
Yeah, I’ve mostly seen it on tweed hunting jackets, similar to this one (though there it forms an extension of the collar, rather than a separate tab).
You can see that if you turn up the collar, the lapels will overlap (fastened at the lapel buttonhole) and the part above the notch would form a stand-up collar similar to a Nehru jacket, with the tab crossing the throat to a button hidden on the underside of the collar. All the better to keep out the wind and rain on a shoot.
On a fashion jacket, as I say, it may just be for the look of the thing.