Waistcoat button configuration

[Kent Wang]

I have this vintage Henry Poole waistcoat (part of a three-piece) from the mid-1980s with five buttonable buttons and a sixth impossible to button button, as it is stitched on the diagonal "quarters". The opposing side does have a working buttonhole. The other waistcoat I own has five buttons, all buttonable. Should I then leave the bottom button unbuttoned? Is five the ideal number of buttonable buttons? Is an extra impossible button preferable?

 

[cptjeff]

If the bottom button is buttonable, I would button it.

It's a styling choice on the part of the maker. A stupid one, IMO. I far prefer a bottom button that actually closes. As for the number, I don't think anyone is going to notice or care.

 

[courty]

The bottom button is not made to be buttoned. Poole and most Savile Row tailors make city waistcoats with six buttons with the bottom "idle" button made in the depicted fashion, in light of the cutom to leave the bottom button undone anyway.

 

[dasai]

I think the unbuttonable button looks kind of contrived on vests that are cut away at an angle at the bottom. If the bottom gently curves away from the vertical, it looks all right, but vests like that are harder to find.