Showerthought: I read a book on 18th century tailoring and the button placement fact blew my mind.

I was flipping through a book I got from the library in Portland about old suit patterns, and it said men's jackets button left over right so they could draw a sword with their right hand without snagging. I always thought it was just a random style thing, not a leftover from sword fighting. Does anyone know other weird fashion details that started for a practical reason like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_cooper22d ago

It's like how we still have QWERTY keyboards even though they were designed to stop typewriter jams, not for speed. Or how those little plastic tips on shoelaces (aglets) were originally metal and kept the lace from fraying when you had to thread it through tight eyelets. Half the stuff we wear or use daily is just fossilized problem solving from a hundred years ago. We're all walking around in museum exhibits made of cloth and steel.

morgan_butler1mo ago

The little pocket on jeans was originally for pocket watches. I read that Levi Strauss added it in the 1800s. It's crazy how that tiny useless pocket today had a real job back then. I always thought it was for coins or something. Fashion history is full of these little leftovers that don't make sense now. It's like finding hidden clues about how people used to live.

joseph_roberts1mo ago

Yeah the "hidden clues" part is so true. I read once that the rivets on jeans were added because miners kept tearing pockets, so they're basically little armor patches. It's wild how every part of old work clothes was a fix for a real problem.