Shirt buttons

Serendipitous Sid

Serendipitous Sid

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Dan
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Or rather buttonholes.

I have a few shirts in which the bottom buttonhole is horizontal rather than vertical like those above it.

Anybody know why they do that?
 
I think it's down to a horizontal buttonhole taking the horizontal stresses with less deformation / distortion and offer less likelihood of the button popping out from the hole than vertical ones do. Your shirt shouldn’t have any fitting stress across its width (above the waist), so generally vertical holes are used. Below the belt or at the waist, where there might be more stress ;), you can use the horizontal one, which has a stronger hold of the button for those stresses. :D
 
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It also used to be stitched with a slightly thicker thread in a different colour.
 
The top (collar) button is also horizontal, to give greater stress resistance where it's needed. It's also regarded as a sign of quality, and good shirtmakers traditionally stitched the bottom buttonhole in a contrasting colour to emphasise it. You still see this on bespoke shirts and some of the better brands, but it's less common than it used to be.
 
I hate it when a spare button or two is stitched to the inside of a new shirt around the hip area and you don't notice it when you first wear it making you wonder what the hell is itching you.
 
frank said:
I hate it when a spare button or two is stitched to the inside of a new shirt around the hip area and you don't notice it when you first wear it making you wonder what the hell is itching you.
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Antibiotics should clear up your itches ;)
 
I don't wear shirts with buttons often enough to have noticed. As far as the collar button hole I wouldn't have thought there would be much room for a vertical hole anyway. Plus horizontal holes will provide a few mm's of adjustment for width.
 
MartynK said:
The top (collar) button is also horizontal ...
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"Collar button"? Pah! A gentleman would be wearing a Proper Shirt with a separate collar so the top holes would be for his front stud. And he'd put it on over his head. None of your modern coat-fronted malarkey ... :cool:

But anyhow, thanks chaps (of any gender). Problem solved.

PS Talking of collar studs, I guess I'm the only bloke on here who can remember Woolies still selling paper collars as late as 1963. Dunno if they still sold the paper cuffs though ...
 
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Serendipitous Sid said:
"Collar button"? Pah! A gentleman would be wearing a Proper Shirt with a separate collar so the top holes would be for his front stud. And he'd put it on over his head. None of your modern coat-fronted malarkey ... :cool:

But anyhow, thanks chaps (of any gender). Problem solved.

PS Talking of collar studs, I guess I'm the only bloke on here who can remember Woolies still selling paper collars as late as 1963. Dunno if they still sold the paper cuffs though ...
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I don't remember that, but I was a kid in 1963. I do recall my father wearing shirts with separate collars and using studs, but I think he changed to collar attached shirts at some point.
 
MartynK said:
I don't remember that, but I was a kid in 1963. I do recall my father wearing shirts with separate collars and using studs, but I think he changed to collar attached shirts at some point.
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The main attraction to us lads was that you could trim the pointy-bits of the collar to whatever angle was "in" that week, and also because you chucked the collar out after wearing it, you didn't have to wash the shirt as often. But I never bought a second pack of them, so I guess I moved on to collar-attached "best" shirts" PDQ.
 
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