The art of rolling up your sleeves

[Kent Wang]

How do you roll up your sleeves? Of course it depends on the shirt and your measurements, but I neatly fold over the cuff, then roll it over two more times along the same lines. I unbutton any of the cuff buttons but keep the button that's located above the cuff closed. I suppose you can refer to this as the semi-buttoned triple-roll. The top of the rolled up cuff ends up about 2 inches below my elbow. Sometimes it hikes up over my elbow when I stretch, but I'm diligent about pushing it back down.

Longer cuffs are a little tricky, and I avoid those shirts anyway, but I will usually fold the cuff in half, then roll it up twice. I'll call this the half-fold-triple-roll.

What I really can't stand are shirts that have a different color fabric on the inside. I suppose if you like contrast cuffs, you may like contrast rolled up sleeves. I am a fan of neither.

How do you roll up your sleeves? I've seen a lot of people do it in a very messy manner without any regard for the shape of the cuff. Some people button up after rolling. Some people even roll up French cuffs.

 

[LA Guy]

You're overanalyzing. There are no rules for rolling up your sleeves. One does it because either the sleeves are getting in the way and/or it is hot, or for style. In the former case, I say, roll up your sleeves so they don't fall down. In the latter case, I say that thinging about *how* your sleeves are rolled up is the apothoesis of being casual about things.

 

[imageWIS]

You're overanalyzing. There are no rules for rolling up your sleeves. One does it because either the sleeves are getting in the way and/or it is hot, or for style. In the former case, I say, roll up your sleeves so they don't fall down. In the latter case, I say that thinging about *how* your sleeves are rolled up is the apothoesis of being casual about things.

I don't think we can criticize anyone on the forum for "˜over analyzing' anything regarding clothes, especially you Fok (jeans ring a bell?).

Jon.

 

[Kent Wang]

In the latter case, I say that thinging about *how* your sleeves are rolled up is the apothoesis of being casual about things.

I believe you mean antithesis. Apotheosis means deification. Sorry, just nit-picking.

 

[LA Guy]

Boy, a week of sleep deprivation, and I'm forgetting definitions, that Harvard has a department, which I belong to, doesn't exist, etc... pretty soon I'll be saying that I like it the lamb. Lesson: must sleep more.

Yes, I meant antithesis. However, notice that I spelled apotheosis incorrectly, so I may *not* have meant that when I wrote "apothoesis". Ah, plausible deniabilty - one of the great lessons from the Clinton years.

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

Sleeve placket buttons provide great assistance in rolling - or rather flipping - up cuffs for a casual look. They permit the single flip or double roll to stay in place. The triple roll should be reserved for hand-washing and Death Valley.

On another matter, can anyone explain this new punctuation mark I have seen frequently used here recently:

about *how* your

 

[LA Guy]

Quote:

(LA Guy @ May 23 2005,17:15) You're overanalyzing. Â There are no rules for rolling up your sleeves. Â One does it because either the sleeves are getting in the way and/or it is hot, or for style. Â In the former case, I say, roll up your sleeves so they don't fall down. Â In the latter case, I say that thinging about *how* your sleeves are rolled up is the apothoesis of being casual about things.
I don't think we can criticize anyone on the forum for "˜over analyzing' anything regarding clothes, especially you Fok (jeans ring a bell?). Jon.
Actually, if you ever read my jeans posts Jon, I am (along with ringring) usually the bulwark of reason against the hardcore jeans freak. So there

 

[BjornH]

On another matter, can anyone explain this new punctuation mark I have seen frequently used here recently: about *how* your

This is from the olde days of the Internet when bold type or other niceties where absent. Plain lazyness nowdays, I guess

 

[Fashionslave]

The triple roll should be reserved for hand-washing and Death Valley.

OR emergency trachiotomies.

 

[briancl]

i dont really like the look of too-neatly folded sleeves. i think its important to have the rolled/folded sleeve be tight around your forearm, and sometimes this simply is not possible with a single or double fold. i tend to roll a bit on the messier side.. undo the buttons and roll up until the sleeve is tight around my forearm. although i very rarely do this, and only in a casual setting.

 

[Kent Wang]

The single flip is the worst in my opinion. Barely functional since it doesn't shorten the sleeve much and it leaves the cuff flopping around.

I can appreciate the double-roll depending on the shirt though I still stand behind the triple-roll. I think it all depends on your arm-length, the length of the sleeves and the length of the cuff that forms the foundation of your roll. Perhaps the best measure would really be the distance from the bottom edge of your rolled-up sleeve to the center of your elbow. Perform this measurement with your arms at your side, the shirt pulled down as far as it will naturally fall. I consistently get around 3.5 inches and I am 5'9".

 

[newyorker]

This should settle the debate. MSNBC, John Kerry: The Solitary Soldier http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5506267/site/newsweek/

From the outside, St. Paul's conveyed a certain uniform style, of a casual, self-assured privilege. But it seethed, as most high schools do, with subtle rankings and cliques. (Kerry compared it to " 'Girls Are Mean,' or what's that movie?") At the top were the "Regs" (regular guys), who tended to be from New York private schools and bred resentment among the rest. "In a way, St. Paul's was 'Lord of the Flies'," says Kerry's classmate Piero Fenci. "It could be pretty vicious." The tribal customs were petty and precise. Barbiero came from a middle-class town on New York's Long Island, where "you rolled your sleeves up to your armpits. The first time I did that at St. Paul's someone came up to me and said, 'No, no, no. We don't roll up our sleeves like that. We only flip them over three times'."

 

[dusty]

Tight roll ending right below the elbow (regardless of the number of folds) is the only way to go. Kent is right, the single flip is the worst, not only for the reasons he mentioned, but alaso because it feels so awkward to have a sleeve end a couple inches above your wrist (for me, at least).

 

[benchan]

This topic brings back memories. I had to wear shirts to school during junior high. Long sleeves white shirt with tie during winter, and short sleeves with tie during the summer season. Of coz forum members all frown on the Homer SImpson look. But I was getting my sartorial lesson early. During orientation, some 14-15 years old students in the upper class told all new students not to wear short sleeves shirts during summer but simply roll-up the sleeves twice when it is hot.

 

[faustian bargain]

here's what i tend to do: unbutton cuff and placket. fold up once, but twice as far up as with a regular fold so that the cuff edge is near the crook of your elbow. then 'fold the fold' up over the cuff, leaving the cuff edge exposed. for extra sprezzatura points, dog-ear the cuff corners.