Explain to me… the three-button jacket (and suit)

(Cover credits GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Imagine this: it's October, and you've decided that this year you're going to spend the fall wearing a nice tweed jacket, because it's been six seasons of Peaky Blinders and you're thinking that it's starting to get a bit boring, and that you too could probably give yourself a little look of elegant gangster in tweed.

Well aware that this type of jacket requires a certain budget for adequate quality, you decide to turn to vintage, going Savvy Row .

And after long hours of intense rummaging, digging through dusty racks and refreshing eBay pages, you finally find it: the tweed jacket you've been looking for.

An old tweed with a very rustic micro-pattern like we don't make anymore, a pretty shoulder line, colors that still have a contemporary look... The price seems very good, the condition impeccable, the finishes indisputable. In short, everything is there, you have found a gem.

But just as you're about to pull out the credit card, the moment you lay your eyes back on the jacket, you realize there's a catch: it's a three-button jacket.

Three button jacket from Walker Slater .

"Argh, what's this grandpa thing!" you exclaim.

Suddenly, dozens of snippets of sentences about all the evils of the three-button spring into your mind: "an outdated style that will never come back" ; "a jacket shape that makes its wearer look smaller" ; "a stuffy look" ...

And while you curse our ancestors for having such bad taste , a question arises:

"But what did people see in the three-button jacket?"

Why do people like it?

1. The desire to be outdated

Outdated , adjective: "That has ceased to be in use, that evokes a bygone era." (Synonyms: Obsolete, outmoded, old-fashioned.)

First, let's take an argument that applies from a modern perspective: choosing three buttons is sometimes a way to stand out in a deliberately outdated way.

In the same way that some people have a taste for those famous buttoned ankle boots, or for overalls, or even jumpsuits, and other pieces with a truly "vintage" look. , some are turning to the three-button as a way to add "an air of yesteryear" to their outfit.

I think the charm of the three-button jacket is comparable to that of these boots: it arouses curiosity for a bygone era. (And that's a lot of buttons in both cases.)

After all, positioning yourself as being markedly out of step with the times, even if it means being seen as a bit of an "original", is one of the strongest levers you can use to stand out in your style.

The question is, do we stand out in a good way?

It all depends on whose eyes you look at it. If you are in a very formal and conservative environment, which already has a certain classicism in style, choosing the three-button can make you look like a connoisseur of past elegances, and go even further than others in said classicism.

Jacques Chirac, a former president whose image has recently become that of a style icon (not without a hint of irony), was a distinguished wearer of the three-button shirt.

(Photo by Daniel SIMON/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

It must be said that nostalgia is a very powerful phenomenon as I showed in my last episode of Sapristi. What is excessively old-fashioned therefore carries, paradoxically, a potential for a change of scenery, for reverie, which can succeed for those who know how to 'use with skill.

But I would be dishonest if I didn't tell you that 99 times out of 100, you would fail on it.

You will also notice that when we talk about more casual clothing, we are more inclined to say that it is "retro" , while the formal clothing of yesteryear looks "old-fashioned" or "old-fashioned" , which is a word more loaded with negative connotation.

The formal style, because of the presence it claims , receives less indulgent qualifiers when it has gone out of fashion. It is more socially threatening, more ostentatious, because it still evokes a certain status, and where one can find a charming bonhomie in the one who wears the dungarees, however outdated, one will see much more scathing reactions emerge on costumes that play on past codes.

Come on, if I show you the Rolling Stones with three buttons, I'm sure you'll suddenly hesitate to find it cool. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

2. A more covering, more reserved style

Julien Scavini, on his excellent blog Stiff Collar , explains it very well: the one who chooses the three buttons chooses a more reserved elegance. Which also coincides, in general, with the idea that we have of a past elegance, precisely.

First, more reserved because less revealing. When you wear three buttons, the tie as well as the shirt become more discreet, because a greater part of them is covered.

So we understand a little more why the three buttons are perceived as more austere, and why they are favored by those who want to convey an image of stricter, more sober elegance.

It is also because it is more covering that it also offers a very different silhouette from those of today's canons: the three-button offers a more "tubular" silhouette, while the two-button draws more attention to the waist, which it is supposed to mark via the cinching.

Even though the choice of colors accentuates it, I find that the overall aura of the two characters is different: the one on the left seems more expansive, more flirtatious, the one on the right more reserved, more discreet. ( Stiff Collar )

Now, who would benefit from having a torso that appears longer and more continuous? People with marked excess weight.

I've often heard that the three-button is only for very tall people, and in hindsight, I would tend to say exactly the opposite: a 6'5" giant in a three-button will look like he has an interminably long torso, except under certain conditions (which I'll explain later in the article).

While a very overweight gentleman will certainly not look slim, he will appear more uniform in his silhouette: where the two-button draws attention to the waist, and therefore the stomach, the three-button creates a bust with less demarcation. It levels the entire silhouette.

Forgive me for the quality of the editing, but I found these photos gleaned from "plus size" sales sites very telling: see how the man on the left seems to have a silhouette that is certainly massive, but more balanced, while the one on the right attracts all the attention around the top button of his jacket... And it is precisely in this area that the plumpness is most visible.

Besides, in these photos you can see that they both go against all custom and fasten the last button of the jacket.

Come to think of it, it's better from a "technical" point of view : despite the "fault" with respect to customs dictating that one never closes the last button, it better distributes the visual mass of the torso, while the last open button, itself, accentuates the curve. Something desirable in the majority of cases... But not this one.

So wearing a fully closed three-button is an option to consider if you have this kind of physique. .

Well... as long as the last button isn't pulled by the tension of a jacket that's too small.

To soothe your sore eyes from the previous montage, and to give some credit to strong men, here is Winston Churchill in three buttons with a sprayer. Badass.

(Photo by Capt. Horton/Imperial War Museums via Getty Images)

And for more standard physiques?

Leonardo DiCaprio, 6'2", average build, in a well-cut, sober three-button shirt. It doesn't look THAT bad... but it's not remarkable either. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Tag-Heuer)

Assuming that you look beyond the question of fashion and connotations, from a purely silhouette-based point of view, it seems possible to me, subject to a few conditions.

• Don't have short legs. In clothing, absolute size matters less than proportions. If you have short legs in relation to your bust, the three-button will only accentuate it since it lengthens the torso as much as possible, as we saw above. This is also why the three-button has acquired the reputation of being "good for tall people" and "bad for short people" : often, tall people are taller in large part because of their longer legs, and vice versa for short people. But this is not absolute , and there are short people with short torsos and slender legs, just as we sometimes come across tall people with endless torsos and relatively short legs in comparison.
• Have a minimum of build. I'm not talking about having broad shoulders like a rugby player, but if you sometimes find that you seem a little narrow in the shoulders or chest, not wide enough, or frail in certain outfits, the three-button jacket will make you feel it even more. This is mainly due to the fact that the chest is more covered by the jacket.
• Dress well. Yes. Seriously. Well, when you read this argument you might wonder if I'm not making fun of you a little, but what I mean is that as with all controversial style practices, someone who masters all the other parameters (colors, cut, accessories, materials, proportions) is MUCH more likely to succeed in getting their daring choice across than someone who doesn't have such experience. In the case of the three-button shirt, I would say that if you really want to wear one, you might as well play the old-fashioned dandy card to the max and make slightly more daring choices.

In summary, I would say that the three-button shirt is the potential ally of three types of men: those who want to affect a strict, old-fashioned air , those who are very plump , and those who want to play the anachronism, but this time in old-fashioned extravagance rather than in austerity.

If you are not in any of these three cases, move on.

3. The case of the "false three buttons", or "two and a half buttons"

I mention this briefly because it is important not to confuse them: the "two and a half buttons" is in reality a two-button jacket whose extra button would be hidden behind the jacket lapel, leaving only one more buttonhole visible on the lapel.

The practice is said to have originated with actors during the Golden Age of Hollywood, who gradually began to leave the top button of their three-button jackets undone.

They had probably noticed, intuitively, that this trick accentuated the cinching of the jackets very slightly, and that this corresponded well to the image of athletic and very virile heroes that they were constructing at the time. An image that would logically end up favoring the two buttons, which accentuated the cinching even more.

A jacket measures "two and a half buttons", or "three roll two", from Sartoria Partonopea.

Regardless, these days this type of jacket is nothing more than a two-button jacket with a "nod" to the past.

It was quite fashionable at Pitti Winter 2019, by the way. In my opinion, this detail is a way for the sartorial enthusiast to subtly say "look, I know, I know" , and to allude to his historical knowledge of elegance, while conforming to the contemporary canons of the two-button silhouette.

Note also that you can NOT transform a three-button jacket into a two-button one, or a two-button one into a three-button one: the cut of the lapels and the collar is different for these two shapes.

A diagram, from the excellent Stiff Collar blog, that shows the difference in lapel cut between a two and a three button.

In the first case, your collar would come off, pushed by the excess fabric, and in the second, your jacket lapel would be all pulled by a lack of material. Think about it if you feel like a DIYer at the sight of that famous three-button jacket found in a thrift store... It's a bad idea.

Why is it stuck?

I've already distilled counter-arguments while presenting you with the case for the three-button, but all good things must come to an end, and the time has come to give the decisive arguments against the three-button.

1. A matter of "V"

As the last century progressed, as well as during the one we are living through, a certain idea of ​​what the male silhouette should be has become more refined, more precise, and more important: a nice shoulder build, a fitted waist, and an impression of height via good leg length.

I can't say whether this image is completely "innate". It can certainly be found as far back as the sculptures of ancient Greece. , but in Europe, the centuries preceding ours also gave pride of place to a different appearance for men: a more slender man, with shoulders, certainly, but a thin torso from the middle to the waist, and above all, almost longer than the legs.

Drawings that clearly show the idealized figure in the 19th century. Note that the average man was also significantly smaller at the time.

In such circumstances, you will not be surprised to learn that more buttons meant more torso length, and therefore, a more canonical final result. In fact, the Edwardian suit, dating from the early 20th century, and considered the "ancestor" of the modern classical style, had four buttons.

But for several decades now, the ideal silhouette of a man has increasingly looked like this:

Because it is an international brand that offers both sober and very daring pieces, I find that Suitsupply gives a good barometer of what the global trend is in terms of suits in the world.

Obviously, nothing is set in stone, and I would also say that fans of a more pointed sartorial style are gradually moving towards a silhouette that is still fitted, but looser, especially in trousers, with a higher waist.

But the core idea remains the same : the contemporary ideal man is tall, slim in stature, broad in the shoulders, and longer in the legs than in the torso. The anchor points of his silhouette are the waist and shoulders. This is the famous V-shaped silhouette , which you hear about as much in sports as in fashion.

And every time you try to balance this or that aspect of your body shape through clothing, it is to bring you closer, consciously or not , to this ideal silhouette.

The problem is that while the three-button jacket can, under certain conditions, add some length to the torso, it is absolutely no match for the two-button jacket when it comes to emphasizing your waist and build, and it will always make your torso appear longer, where more leg length is preferred these days.

This simple argument weighs at least as heavily in the balance as all the arguments we have cited above in favor of the three buttons: a design detail, a color, a style, a genre... All of this can evolve quite quickly from one year to the next, as trends change. It can be controlled, diverted, reinterpreted.

But when the very idea that is the essence of a garment's design conditions it to give you a silhouette that is out of step with the canons of an entire era , it becomes difficult to fight.

What I personally think about it

At a time when it is said that the suit is "dying slowly" (as is the very idea of ​​formal attire), I cannot, in all conscience, recommend the three-button suit to the vast majority of men, and would not wear it myself.

Even with the advantages it may have in certain special cases, I believe that as long as the physical standards of men remain as they are today, the three-button will either be a mistake or a second-best solution.

There would obviously be some elements that could encourage its return: for example, if the cuts continued to evolve sustainably towards more width , it would be possible to see tall people wearing the three-button: as the jackets would be wider, this would balance the impression of "long torso" given by the additional button.

Let's take (again) Jacques Chirac as an example, in three buttons.

Photo by Michel GINFRAY/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

On a very tall man like him, jackets with both three buttons AND wide look great. But you would expose yourself to a double shift with regard to the trend: width AND buttoning.

Notice that if you look at him he is not quite 1m90, but seems closer to 1m80: this is the effect of the width of the jacket which makes him look very small while making him look wider. .

Which is a pretty convincing result for him .

However, you know that in the eyes of the general public, trends and the spirit of the times are more taken into account than pure questions of silhouettes and proportions. It is therefore difficult to imagine how a piece such as the three buttons, which respond to a very specific niche of morphology, while evoking an old-fashioned air, could make a comeback.

To put us back in the initial situation of the article, I would have advised you to put back that three-button vintage tweed jacket that you had just found, even if the deal seemed tempting.

But in fashion, nothing is impossible , and sometimes it's the most unlikely trends that end up being the most successful. So if one day that outdated third button comes back, don't forget to take another look at this article.