Keeping the bottom button open, but why?

Going around the world to improve the image of men I find myself saying this very often: “please, leave the bottom button open! Yes, for the vest also!” On the opposite side, men tend to look at me quite awkwardly as until that point I didn’t let them feel I am the “strange” kind of person. So here we are using just the first buttons and doing something that apparently doesn’t make any sense…

To make sense we have to go back more than 100 years ago to the British Royal Court. At the beginning of the last century, King Edward VII – the grand grand father of Queen Elizabeth II – decided to wear his bottom button open for the jacket to look better when on the horse and for the vest or waistcoat because he was becoming a bit too fat for his bespoke suits.

The King who ruled between 1901 and 1910 used to open his bottom button when riding as the third and last button of his “modern” single breast jacket – replacing the conservative riding jacket – was positioned below the waist. So keeping it open offered more comfort as well as it made the jacket look better. Also, it is said he left the first button open as he considered it a cool detail.

The lounge suit is actually the essence of what men have now as the classic suit. It was introduced with the mission of a more relaxed alternative to the riding suit and King Edward immediately adopted the idea and considering his global influence he changed the men fashion forever. The lounge jacket which also had three buttons received the “Royal touch”: the first button opened but it was also allowed to be sometimes closed, the second button always closed and the third always opened.

As for the vest, King Edward had absolutely no intention to give up his eating habits and therefore the bottom button was known to stay open for comfort during all occasions, as confirmed by the photos of him from those times. Soon after, every respectable gentleman around the world copied the style sense of the King and kept it alive until our days. So, please, either if your jacket has two or three buttons, leave the bottom one open! For the vest also. The “Royal principle” applies to the double breasted jackets too, just that you leave only the bottom button from the exterior open. For the modern one button jacket, just close it ok? An extra advice would be to leave the jacket completely unbuttoned when wearing a vest. It gives you more comfort but also a stylish look as the three pieces suit is the more elegant but less popular model these days.

Follow King Edward VII for more style trends that some people wearing too tight clothes on Instagram think are new. They are 100 years old and still cool.