what is the different between 3 button and 4 button on the sleeve?

[Bruce9241]

I always see suits with either 3 buttons or 4 buttons on the sleeve area. What does this mean? Does it have anything to do with quality?


Is there a way to get rid of that shoulder padding no a suit jacket? I have pretty wide developed shoulders and the padding makes it look like I am wearing football pads. I've tried on many jackets and they all have the same affect on me.

 

[jml90]

Originally Posted by Bruce9241

I always see suits with either 3 buttons or 4 buttons on the sleeve area. What does this mean? Does it have anything to do with quality?

Diddley poo.

 

[Omegablogger]

I was told, at the Paul Smith store, that in the past the number of buttons was a sign of wealth. Having said that it could have been a lie as the suit I was looking at had 5.

 

[Bruce9241]

my current suit is from burlington coat factory and it has three buttons. This suit is absolutely garbage. I hate the way it just sits on me. It does not move well with my movement and the shoulders are way too padded.

 

[Connemara]

Is this thread a joke?

 

[dusty]

Have a tailor sew one extra button on each sleeve. It should clear your problems up.

 

[thinman]

I once suggested to a tailor that he sew only three buttons on the sleeves of my jacket and he countered that four would look better because I'm tall and thin with long arms. Four buttons would make my arms look shorter. Conversely, I guess men with shorter arms might prefer 3 buttons.

 

[ortolan]

For my own tastes, I think 4 buttons is a more classic look, though 3 buttons on a sportscoat is fine.

You can stack 4 buttons one above each other without overlapping. This is something that I think looks better for thicker buttons and working buttonholes. For example, here is a picture of my Kiton tux with thick non-overlapping working buttons.

Now, here is an example of a Borrelli sports jacket that I have. The working buttons are overlapped in a kissing style:

This makes the 4 buttons more compact, if you are worried about the "height" of 4 buttons on your sleeve.

Working buttonholes are a sign of a more expensive make (but not always). If there simply is not enough fabric to fully make 4 working buttonholes, 3 must suffice. In fact, you may not have enough to make 3 (and I think most people would recommend at least 3) and the sleeve cannot be shortened through the shoulder, then you are left with few options. In this case, a good tailor can do the following, as in a Loro Piana sportscoat that I have with 3 working buttons:

If you look carefully, there is a patch of matching fabric above the third button. Short of reweaving, if you really want all the buttons to work, this is the best that can be done, as I understand it, but I will defer to master tailors who frequent this forum.

I hope this explanation helps. You can always show your tailor pictures of what you want done.


--ortolan

 

[grimslade]

1. As others have noted, the number of buttons has nothing to do with anything much. on the second question, some suit are made with a natural shoulder with little or no padding. it sounds like that is what you are after. far better to seek there out than to try to remove the padding from a suit designed with padded shoulders. it might work, but it's far more likely to end in tears.

 

[a tailor]

with 50 years of experience i can tell you the technical difference between 3buttons and 4 buttons is "one button". and thats the truth. dont let anyone tell you otherwise.

 

[MilanoStyle]

I've seen Gucci suits (made by Zegna) have 5 sleeve buttons.

 

[ortolan]

Grimslade has it right. The gentleman's suit must be brought to a trustworthy tailor. Quite possibly it will be too expensive or not realistic to fix the suit in question to his satisfaction.

--ortolan