Of the cuff

​I keep banging on about these iTailor but it’s been a while since I’ve properly done a post on them. Just to clarify, they are incredible.

Yesterday my new shirt arrived from iTailor. It fits perfectly, the pattern is exquisite and, to my contentment, they have done something good with the cuffs. 

I was in a constant quandary with cuffs. I wanted to have French cuffs so I can wear links and so they look brill with a suit jacket, as per the pic of Pete Townshend below. I like the straight front edge; a sharp line for maximum impact on the eye.

Pete Townshend repping the French cuff

​​However, it’s a pain in the arse to have to wear cufflinks all the time. When you’re (relatively) casual, you don’t want to be worrying about carrying extra valuable bits of metal around. Plus, if you wear jackets with any kind of elasticated cuffs (e.g. Parkas, Harringtons, MA-1s, MA-2s, anything really) then cufflinks feel even more awkward, to the extent that it might actually damage the shirt up in the sleeve.

So recently I’ve been opting for the twin-button “barrel” cuffs. I quite like these. They’re elegant, but practical, going smoothly into the sleeves of a Harrington without complaint. For a bit of variation, you can select diagonal edges, which are a bit unusual and they still look quite good with suit jackets. But they don’t accommodate cufflinks at all.

Barrel cuff

One-button cuff

So French cuffs look the best but aren’t practical for daily use. Barrel cuffs are fine for the everyday, but when you want to don some cufflinks to look your best, they’re totally useless. 

It’s a conundrum. A riddle of sorts. Before now, I was convinced it was certainly the most significant thing that all Mods should be concerned about in the world today.

But on my new shirt: behold the single-button cuff with horizontal incision (yes, the orange thread was my idea).

This shouldn’t really need such a big reveal because it’s the most obvious thing ever, but I thought iTailor didn’t do this!

A single button to tie up the cuff for practical usage, with a second button for tight or loose fitting. 

And, between those two buttons, a small horizontal hole cut in the fabric. For cufflinks of course. 

I first saw this in use on an M&S shirt back in the day, it just seems so unusual now to see this convenient detail that I was over the moon and it’s got to be the best bit about this new shirt. 

From now on, I all shirtmakers should do this by default. Fuck everything else, this is the answer.