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why to mens shirts button opposite of womens?

Edward

Bartender
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25,078
Location
London, UK
LizzieMaine said:
Maybe it's as simple as a function of "handedness" --- there's more right handed people than lefties.

As a left hander myself (luckily from a generation where, unlike my grandfather, it wasn't literally beaten out of me at school, though I did have a preschool teacher crack me over the knuckles any time she caught me using my left hand), I think there's a lot to be said for this. I doubt many right handers notice it (why would they?), but there are a surprising number of things that are simply designed with only the right-handed 'norm' in mind. We sinister (yes, the Latin for left also came to mean 'evil' in English...) types just have to adapt. ;)

I did have a shirt some years ago, a casual, lumberjack workshirt style garment, that I acquired from little brother's cast offs. It was buttoned towards the ladies' side.... no idea how he came by it. I ended up passing it on to a a shorter female friend when it shrank in the wash.

hailey greenhat said:
Doctor Strange's second reasoning (swords hung on the left) is the one i've heard most often. :)

I wouldn't discount this as part of the origin, though it can't be, I should have thought, the sole reason... by the time standardisation occurred, into the early twentieth century, nobody outside of certain military ranks (and they only in uniform) carried a sword anymore. gun ownership, while as I understand it more common back then than now, was never, I believe, as common in Europe as in the US, so I don't think access to a (concealed) holster would have been a major part of it. It's an appealing myth, but I doubt it's much more than that. It may, however, be worth noting something I picked up during my brief time as a fencer at university. Fencing tunics are handed. Right handed fencers wear a top which appears, at first glance, to be buttoned the ladies' way, i.e. the right hand side attaches over the top of the left. Left handers go vice versa. This is, quite simply, so that the "open" side of your tunic is not the one exposed to your opponent, thus avoiding any danger of their foil getting in between the layers of your clothing.
 

Amy Jeanne

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,858
Location
Colorado
Quigley Brown said:
good one, Miss Neecerie...lol

Any one wanna see me in 'drag?' :D


1.) Yes

2.) I sew all my own clothes and to this day I still don't know which side I'm "supposed" to put the buttons on (I always measure it out myself and never follow the pattern!) They go on whichever side "hangs" better. I bet most people in the world don't know this (or care), either. Wear the shirt with pride!!!!!
 

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