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Why are mens/womens clothing items made with buttons and what not on opposite sides?
The first couple of times doing up buttons on a blouse was tricky but now it is normal to me.
What was the reason for this? I read that it was for purposes of nursing but I don’t get that one, 1 breast would always be available..
Sorting out all our life differences sure can be tough! And then there is the question of why share shoe designs of left/right? Hospital slippers and gowns are unisex.
Dame Veronica
I remember reading a long time ago it’s because women use to have people dress them and the buttons was put on the opposite side to make it easy to button/fasten. I could be wrong not a 100% sure.
My oh my life must have been hard for the rich.lol.
I understood it be for the reason Emma says – can’t remember where or when I heard/read this, but it was some time ago now!
Since I now wear ladies jeans and trousers all the time and even when dressing in male mode I mostly wear ladies shirts, I now find it strange when the fastenings are on the ‘male’ side.The way it was explained to me is a proper women would only be seen walking with a man on his left . So the buttons were opposite so nether could get a chance to see in ,
Hmmmm this topic reminds me of the first time I kinda became curious about dressing was when I was a pre teen with my parents at their friends lake side cottage. The girls splashed me with water and I had nothing to change in to. The girls gave me a polo shirt and I was fascinated by how it felt and looked on me but I also kept fiddling with the tiny buttons which were opposite. I remember asking if she got it at a special lefty store lol they laughed at me and noted how much I visibly loved wearing her shirt. They jokingly asked if I would like to be dressed. Sorry to ramble
Dame Veronica, I was told that Eve was left handed when she made her first blouse, and i think Adam was ambidextrous. Py. x.
You wouldn’t need buttons if you had a snake skin belt, if only there was a snake around here…..oh.
Back in the Renaissance women’s clothes were far more complicated than men’s. People of quality, able to pay others to make their clothes were also able to pay for servants to help the women get dressed in those complicated garments. So clothiers put the buttons on the left so as to make it easier for servants to button them. When clothing started becoming mass produced, they continued the tradition because the poor or lower class still didn’t buy clothes made by someone else.
Even as the prices of clothes came down and the standard of living went up, the die was cast and women’s clothes retained the buttons on the left, even though few women even rich women have servants buttoning their clothes.
Here’s a funny story. I used to ride sport bikes out in the canyons in Southern California. I have a set of Alpinestars racing leathers. I elected at the time to get a two piece set instead of the one piece. I didn’t like the way the men’s top fit so I got a women’s top and men’s bottom. They zip together at the waist forming a one piece unit. I think I paid $1000.00 for the set so it’s top quality stuff and purely technical wear. The Top is just a high tech leather jacket with composite inserts for protection and it has a zipper on the front. The bottom is just high tech leather pants with Velcro patches for the knee pucks. The zipper on the women’s jacket is reverse from the men’s. That is how ingrained it is.
Also, I was sorta halfway cross dressed, albeit for purely functional purposes. 🙂
<i’m pretty sure it was because the first women who could afford buttons had dressers…mostly right handed ones.
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