Sometimes? Always? Never?
Naturally, we also want you to look Suitable, so here once more to avoid misunderstandings: regardless of how many buttons the jacket of your suit has, you always leave the bottom button open. The top one always closed.
Unless your jacket has three buttons. In that case the rule 'sometimes-always-never' applies; the bottom button stays open, the middle one closed and the top one is a matter of debate. According to some it should be open, others say closed, and then there's also a group who say it doesn't matter. In short, this is a grey area for us. In this case, do whatever you feel comfortable with.
But, we wonder, why must that bottom button always stay open? Why would you put a button on a jacket if you never use it? Where does this tradition actually come from?
Button it up earlier…
For the answer, we have to go back in time. To 1906, to be precise. In England, Edward VII was in power from 1906 to 1910. Rumour has it that this man, like most of us, was fond of a drink and good food and became so stout that he no longer fit into his waistcoat. He therefore left the bottom button open so that the whole thing looked better and sat a lot more comfortably. Out of respect for the king, more and more men adopted this, which is why we still dress this way today.
And it's not only the rules for the waistcoat that come from King Edward VII; he also took the first step for the jacket. The suit as we now know it was formerly better known as a 'lounge suit'. This casual suit was introduced in 1906 and was so popular that the traditional riding suit slowly disappeared. With this suit it was customary to keep the bottom button of your jacket open, because it otherwise looked odd when you sat on a horse. To keep this old habit alive, and we also think because of the size of his belly, King Edward did this with his lounge suit too. The English adopted this en masse as well.
Nowadays, waistcoats and jackets are therefore designed so that the bottom button stays open. If you don't do this, you disrupt the fit of your suit. In short: keep that button open!
