Taking the mystery out of clothing design

By Becca Anderson

You handle garments all day long. And sometimes, their quirks get in the way, or at least raise questions. So I decided to track down the reasons behind some of the peculiar details of modern clothing. Turns out, many of them go back a long way.

Those Pesky Buttons!

WHY are women’s buttons on the left side of the shirt, and men’s on the right side?

There are several competing theories, but all are steeped in history. The most-quoted one says that men’s buttons were arranged as they are because most men are right-handed, and wore their swords on the left. Drawing a sword in a moment of danger and having it hang up on fabric was not only bad form, it could be deadly.

Wealthy women were frequently dressed by right-handed servants, who would be facing them. Having the buttons reversed made sense in this case. Another idea is that it made breast feeding easier if the baby was held in the left arm, so the right could undo the buttons.

My favourite (and certainly the most entertaining) legend says Napoleon got angry when women mocked him for his famous hand-in-waistcoat pose, so he ordered their buttons moved to the opposite side to spite them.

Things going sideways

WHY is the bottom button on some shirts horizontal?

Sometimes, clothing manufacturers actually sit down and think hard to solve common problems, then implement the solution in garments. The horizontal button is one of those solutions.

Most shirt buttonholes are vertical because that keeps the buttons neatly aligned and makes them easy to fasten. But the bottom of the shirt, around the waist and hips, gets considerably more side-to-side pulling and movement. People might suddenly find that bottom part of the shirt flapping in the breeze if they weren’t careful.

The solution? Turn that bottom buttonhole sideways. Without that extra security, the bottom of the shirt is more likely to pull open under stress. It seems to have worked, as the design lives on.

It’s a sign!

WHY is there a loop on the back of some men’s shirts?

The technical name for that weird loop on the outside of a man’s shirt in the middle of his upper back is a “locker loop.” The Gant Company added the innovation to its Oxford button-down shirts. The New Haven, CT company supplied shirts to the Yale Co-op. Students liked the loops because they could hang a shirt in a locker without completely destroying its ironing.

Of course, we’re talking about students here, so according to campus lore, they developed a way to demonstrate a man’s relationship status by way of the loop. If he was “going steady”, he removed the loop. 

Watch for it

WHY do jeans have that ridiculously tiny pocket?

Levi’s original  riveted waist overalls made in 1873 had four pockets. There were two in front, one in back, and a much smaller pocket almost inside the right-hand front pocket. It was meant for storing one’s watch. At the time, watches weren’t conveniently housed on a strap on a wrist, but carried on a chain and tucked into a pocket. Levi Strauss thought this was the best place for a safe watch haven.

Interestingly, though we think of it as the “fifth pocket”, it wasn’t. That was actually the second pocket in the back, added in 1901.

For looks, not inconvenience

WHY are the pockets on a new suit or pants sometimes sewn shut?

This one is more practical.  The temporary stitching helps a tailored garment retain its shape during manufacturing, pressing, shipping, display and repeated trying-on. It’s so common that some customers might think they are never meant to access those pockets!

Once the garment arrives at a shop, people sticking their hands in the pockets can distort them before the garment is ever sold. Of course, once the suit is sold, sticking keys and other items in pockets does stretch them, so some wearers choose to leave them sewn shut to maintain the look of the garment.

Should you take out the stitching for them? Probably not. There may be method to the customer’s madness.

A hole in history

WHY do suit coats have a button hole on the lapel?

The hole itself is a leftover from earlier coat styles, when men’s coats could be buttoned higher up the chest or neck for warmth. As lapels evolved and coats were worn open at the top, one of those functional buttonholes remained behind. 

Historical accounts credit England’s Prince Albert in the 19th century for popularizing the habit of men placing the stem of a flower (a boutonnière) through the hole for weddings and formal events. It also became a handy place for club badges, political emblems, or corporate pins. After all, the hole was already there.

The hole persists, and in high-end custom suits, a raised and hand-stitched version called a Milanese buttonhole is a mark of fine tailoring.

Personally, I like the look of a well-dressed man with a flower on his lapel.

It’s the sound!

WHY are they called zippers?

The name Zipper is kind of catchy, you have to admit. And it’s far better than the name of the very first in a string of contraptions with the same intent: Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure. What a mouthful!

Over the course of 60 years, various versions were created (like the 1890 “clasp locker” for shoes and boots, demonstrated at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.) But it took Gideon Sundback, an engineer, to design the two rows of interlocking metal teeth pulled together and separated by a slider. He patented it in 1917.

It still had a silly name: separable fastener. Surely nothing to turn heads on Madison Avenue.

B.F. Goodrich Company began using the gizmo on rubber boots, and someone there apparently liked the “zip” sound it made when operated. They started calling the boots zippers, and the catchy name eventually migrated from the boot to the fastener itself.

Did you cotton on to this?

WHY isn’t cotton the most popular fabric in the world?

Globally, the most widely produced fibre is polyester. It’s used in clothing, textiles, and other items. In fact, polyester now accounts for more than half of global fibre production. That’s considerably more than cotton.

Why did polyester surge in popularity? There are lots of reasons.

• It’s inexpensive. Polyester can be produced in enormous quantities at relatively low cost. 
• It’s durable. It resists abrasion, stretching and shrinking and generally survives repeated washing well. 
• It doesn’t wrinkle easily. That’s a major advantage in everyday clothing. 
• It holds its shape. Pleats, creases and garment structure can be heat-set into polyester. 
• It dries quickly. Polyester absorbs very little moisture compared with cotton. 
• It’s extraordinarily versatile. Manufacturers can make polyester fibres that imitate silk, wool or cotton, or produce fleece, microfiber, athletic fabrics and everything in between. 
• It blends well. Polyester/cotton and polyester/wool blends can combine some of the desirable characteristics of both fibres. 

The interesting thing is that polyester didn’t become the dominant fibre because the world’s shoppers rose up and demanded more polyester. Economics, mass production, easy care and the explosion of inexpensive clothing shot polyester to the top of the heap.

And that’s one of the problems, too. That wonderful shirt that refuses to wear out can remain polyester for a very, very long time after somebody throws it away.

Makes you look good

WHY do people wear black so much?

Black consistently ranks among the most popular colours people buy — and in many clothing categories, it comes out on top  After all, it goes with practically everything. It works for formalwear, workwear, evening wear, athletic wear, and all styles in between. It hides stains reasonably well. And we’ve been told for generations that black is slimming, which certainly hasn’t hurt sales.

Think of it as fashion’s greatest get-out-of-jail-free card. You can wear it anywhere, any time, and pair it with anything. For a colour traditionally associated in Western cultures with mourning, black has somehow become the colour we wear when we want to look elegant, powerful, sexy, serious, thinner, fashionable… or even invisible.

That’s a pretty impressive workload for one colour.

So there you have it, from an emperor’s snit fit, to relationship status, to the noise a closure makes. Maybe it will brighten your workday to look at all those clothes with a fresh eye, and feel smug that you know more about them than you did last week.

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