BD FC

[CharlestonBows]

I had a gentleman today ask for a button down collar shirt, but with french cuffs. I found it very odd, personally, and explained how it would be a schizophrenic shirt.

Of course I didn't have any such thing, but when he asked for me to make one, I recommended strongly against it - just short of a plain refusal (I hesitate to have my label in the back of such a thing). I compromised on a convertible cuff BD, instead.

What do you guys think?

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I was surprised when I moved to Boston that people here wore button-down collars for work and for semi-formal occasions. This was before that practice spread all over the country.

Making a shirt with French cuffs and a button-down collar is certainly unusual, but no more so, I suppose, than Fred Astaire using a necktie as a belt. It could be a mark of style.

For me, however, there is just too much going on there; sort of like the collar-bar, tie chain, cufflink crowd; too much! I like a more streamlined look.

I hate to triangulate on the issue, but... I can appreciate why you wouldn't want your brand on one, as I can equally appreciate how you might want to be the first one (assuming that you would be) to produce one!

 

[scotrace]

Button down & French cuffs.

It's just not done.

 

[carter]

Considering what the customer wanted, I'd say the convertible cuff BD was a good recommendation. French cuffs on a BD just seems odd.

 

[CharlestonBows]

My issue was with the two totally different styles of dress that would collide. Button down collars are a worker's shirt. Those shirts are supposed to come with a pocket, and they aren't true dress shirts. They are, at best, casual sporting shirts. A proper dress shirt has a sculpted collar, and no pocket. Those are the only shirts that should have such a formal device as a double cuff. At least in my estimation. Just in examining the lineage of each device it doesn't make sense. That was my reaction, anyways.

 

[AlanC]

I think saying that a button down collar is only a 'worker's shirt' is going too far. It finds its origin as a sporting shirt, thus Brooks Bros. 'Polo collar' designation. There is certainly a strong heritage of the button down collar in academia with tweeds and bow ties. It's just the thing with a seersucker suit. It is a traditional American type collar.

I think to say that it's on the less formal end of the spectrum is certainly true, however. And, of course, it should never have French cuffs.

 

[CharlestonBows]

I think saying that a button down collar is only a 'worker's shirt' is going too far. It finds its origin as a sporting shirt, thus Brooks Bros. 'Polo collar' designation. There is certainly a strong heritage of the button down collar in academia with tweeds and bow ties. It's just the thing with a seersucker suit. It is a traditional American type collar.

They are, at best, casual sporting shirts.

While I didn't specify it as only a 'worker's shirt', it was a broad generalization, to be sure, mainly to indicate the inherently non-formal (and thereby non-dress) nature of the collar.

Point very much taken, all the same.

 

[dhermann1]

Also, the type of material would be wrong. Button downs use that more open weave, softer material, whereas a French cuff needs a tightly weaved, stiffer material. I believe the original purpose of button downs was for sporting events, to keep the collar from flapping. That's why they're less formal (not necessarily for manual labor). But that was about 80 or 100 years ago. If it's technically feasible, why not. The button down was an innovation in its own time. Why should the age of creative innovation be considered over? That said, I wouldn't wear one, myself.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I'm not a guy but I was a tailor and I'm with you guys. The combination doesn't work.

 

[Tomasso]

I like 'em!

I ordered a few in Royal Oxford from Charvet last year. They didn't even bat an eye at the request, in fact they mentioned that they've had several customers order them over the years.

 

[MudInYerEye]

Who dares wins