Buttons on the left?

[brimorse]

While working on a jacket, the following question crossed my mind: were buttons ever placed on the left side of a garment opening and the buttonholes on the right as opposed to the opposite?

I looked for an answer to this question and did not come up with one.

Any input?

Thanks in advance,

Brian Morse
11th Ind. Inf.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Buttons on the left?

Hallo Kamerad!

In general, the dictates of fashion called for men's garments to button left over right, and while womens' garments often buttoned right over left, they were known to also button left over right.
Due to the nature of reversed image photography, numbers of CW era images are backwards, creating the illusion that mens' garments buttoned against "convention."

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[RyanBWeddle]

Re: Buttons on the left?

While working on a jacket, the following question crossed my mind: were buttons ever placed on the left side of a garment opening and the buttonholes on the right as opposed to the opposite?

I looked for an answer to this question and did not come up with one.

Any input?

Thanks in advance,

Brian Morse
11th Ind. Inf.

Take a look through the Echoes of Glory series and you'll see both styles used in a variety of garments.

[DougCooper]

Re: Buttons on the left?

Careful - The Echoes photos that show left side buttons may be backward photos themselves.

The only confirmed left button military jacket I have seen is the "Mansfield Jacket" in the museum at the Mansfield visitor center. The original right side buttonholes were sewn closed (and left side buttons removed) and the buttonholes recut on the correct side (for a man) and buttons attached ditto. This is a strange jacket as the original blue collar piping was covered over with a solid yellow collar trim at some point. Theories abound at why and how this all happened.

[tmdreb]

Re: Buttons on the left?

I posted this for an astute fellow on the old AC who pointed out that several original frocks he had seen in person were buttoned right over left, or reversed from "normal." This could obviously have in no way be caused by a period photographic process. Remember that double-breasted frock coats can be buttoned either way, due to the fact that they have buttons and buttonholes on both sides.

About the Mansfield jacket - the buttonholes that were sewn up are only on the outside front piece of the jacket, and do not go all the way through. Only that one piece was cut with buttonholes. It may perhaps be a recycled piece from another jacket that had been fully or partially completed.

I'm still waiting to see a definite surviving original or an unreversed image of a man's garment that buttons the "wrong" way. Remember when looking at images to look closely at the finer details. Quite often, the men would reverse their accoutrements so they would not appear reversed in the photo. A good clue are beltplates and fixed bayonets, which should usually stick out to the same side as the lockplate of the rifle or musket.