I’m a psychotherapist with a lot of white-collar clients. I’m pretty heavily tattooed, so wearing a suit helps me seem more credible. However, I am tripping on one rule: Why is it forbidden to button both buttons of a suit jacket? It gives me better posture and makes me look more together, but am I embarrassing myself if I continue to ignore this? — Victor, New York
Given how much time is spent encouraging women to break every fashion rule in the old stylebook (starting with no white after Labor Day), it is notable that many male fashion dictats have stuck. Chief among them is the mandate that when it comes to the classic single-breasted, two-button suit, the bottom button must remain undone. Why?
Well, according to an assortment of tailors, critics, stylists and other men’s wear experts, it’s simple: It actually looks better.
Alan Flusser, a tailor to the masters of the universe and the author of “Dressing the Man,” laid it out for me via email: “One of the most crucial proportions to an ideal tailored jacket is its length, which should be long enough to cover the buttocks but short enough to produce as long a leg line as possible.”
“In addition,” he wrote, “its waistline should, as a general rule, rest just above a man’s navel. If buttoned without the lower button done up, the coat front will then move in fluidity with a man’s gait, giving the appearance of a smaller waist, slightly flared hip and added height.”
Fashion myth has it that the first person who figured this out was King Edward VII, who started opening the bottom button of his jacket after he gained some weight because it was getting uncomfortable. Edward, according to Farid Chenoune in “A History of Men’s Fashion,” was “one of those pivotal figures so crucial to the history of men’s fashion in the way they orient, regulate and accelerate change when the world shifts from one era to another.” This, he wrote, was one of his great contributions.
Over time, it simply became the accepted way of dressing. Now, “modern jackets are cut with the expectation that the bottom button will never be used,” Derek Guy, a men’s wear critic, said. “The buttonhole down there mostly survives as a vestigial detail, like the lapel buttonhole that once let you fasten the jacket up to the neck or the tiny coin pocket on five‑pocket jeans.”
If you do button it, Mr. Flusser said, the jacket ends up being sort of tight around the hips, which creates a less-than-attractive line.
That said, there are some dissenters. Lil Nas X was recently photographed leaving court on the multiple days of his felony assault case wearing his suit jacket entirely buttoned up, perhaps in order to signify that he was, literally, pulling himself together. (The judge ruled that charges would be dismissed if he voluntarily completes a mental health program.) John F. Kennedy often wore his jackets buttoned, reportedly to cover the back brace he had to wear.
All of which makes the question of whether to button or not to button one of interpretation: In buttoning the second button, what signal are you actually sending? While doing so is partly about you, it’s mostly about the people looking at you. If those people have any knowledge of tailoring, buttoning may read as ignorance. “It distances you from the centers of cultural capital, rather than putting you closer to them,” Mr. Guy said.
Joseph Rosenfeld, a stylist who works with executives in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, went even further. “A suit is one of the most structured and formal forms of dress,” he said. “That structure is part of what signals credibility. Within that, though, credibility comes from how naturally the clothing supports your presence.
He continued: “Fastening the bottom button can make you appear constrained, as if you’re trying to control the impression rather than letting it come through naturally. In that sense, it can have the opposite effect and make you look less credible.”
At least with one exception. “With a double‑breasted jacket, fastening the bottom button is perfectly acceptable,” Mr. Guy said. That way, you get to have your fashion cake and wear it, too.
Your Style Questions, Answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or X. Questions are edited and condensed.
Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.
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