Which is better, 3 or 4 sleeve buttons?
Answer: Four sleeve buttons on your suit’s sleeve if your arms are long. Three sleeve buttons on your sleeve if your arms are short.
If you want to show that your jacket is truly custom made and bespoke, try to get four functional kissing bone buttons on your sleeves like pictured below.
- Kissing buttons made of bull horn.
If you want to show some vogue, your sleeve buttons must be functional because the suits sleeve buttons are usually there just for show when bought. Custom suits almost never use nonfunctional buttons.
How would people know your sleeve buttons are functional?
To show that your suit’s buttonholes are truly functional, most people usually leave one sleeve button unbuttoned.
The skipper of Goldman Sachs is pictured above during a court hearing. Isn’t it ironic how Lloyd’s unbuttoned sleeve button is subtle yet noticeable? I love the “think different” approach by such leaders. Some people will his wardrobe arrogant, but as CEO with a base pay of $600,000 a year, he definitely shows me he knows his stuff! Take my money GS! (photo courtesy of Reuters)
In addition, it should be taken into consideration that it’s not arrogance but natural for successful people to be very attentive about their appearance. To my opinion it’s not that they are obsessive, they are just keen having very good attention to detail, which is very important to be successful in any field.
The deal with three and four buttons on the sleeves?
This could be a personal thing but I prefer four functional non-kissing buttons (like you see above) on business and formal suits. The reason is because it is easier for me to button and unbuttoned them. Furthermore, I also prefer four buttons because my arms are not long and also not short. Unbuttoning one to have show three buttons helps compliments the length of my arm.
Three sleeve buttons portray more of a regular look and some will say its the norm. However, there are others will point out that that four sleeve buttons is the new standard.
If I was ever going to get three buttons on my sleeves, I’d go all out for simplicity and choose one button just to stand out from the rest of the crowd. It might look cheap but it’s definitely different. (Remember to alway think different)
History of Functional Sleeve Buttons?
For the sake of learning about buttons on suit sleeves; interesting fact is that they also known as “surgeon’s cuffs”. Though mayn may disagree, the common explanation to why they are called surgeon’s cuffs is because field surgeons on the battlefield during the old days needed to roll up their sleeves to perform medical procedures. Today, these buttons are for decorative purposes.