BUTTONING OF THE SHIRTS FOR MEN AND FOR WOMEN: WHY IS IT INVERSE?

Buttoning of the shirts: a spontaneous gesture that we make every day without asking why the "direction" of the buttoning is different for the two sexes.

In the garments for women, the shirts buttons are located on the left side of the garment, while for the male garments, they are on the right side. But why?

There are several historical reasons for which it was originally made this choice. Let's discover them.

In the case of the stronger sex, the simplest explanation is that the clothing of the wealthy men often included a weapon. Most of the men held the sword with their right hand, and it was more comfortable and quick to use the left hand to unfasten the buttons. In the last century portraits, man is often represented with his right hand that slips between the coat and the waistcoat, ready to pull out the weapon, so it was more practical to tie the clothes from left to right, leaving the right hand focused on the weapon .

As for women, there are several hypotheses concerning the position of the shirts buttons.

The first one would be represented by the care of the children. Women tend to hold the children with their left arm, so that they have their right one free, and according to one theory, the fact of having the flap of the shirt on the right side opened would make breastfeeding easier. The explanation perhaps most accepted, though, is that many wealthy women, in the past, didn’t dress by themselves. They had the help of their serves and ladies in waiting, which, positioned in front of them, would have had more ease in fastening the buttons of their ladies with the buttoning on the left side.