Whether you wear a suit regularly or only on special occasions, it’s important to know that there are some (unwritten) rules for wearing a suit. Perhaps the most important one is that you should never, I mean never, fasten the bottom button of a suit. But why? You’ve probably wondered about this. Well, we certainly have, and we’ve finally found the rather surprising answer!
Sometimes? Always? Never?
We naturally want you to look Suitable, so once again to avoid any misunderstandings: regardless of how many buttons your suit jacket has, you always leave the bottom button open. Always fasten the top one. Unless your jacket has three buttons. In that case, the rule is ‘sometimes-always-never’; the bottom button remains open, the middle one is fastened, and the top one is a matter of debate. According to some, it should be open, others say it should be fastened, and then there’s a group that says it doesn’t matter. In short, this is a gray area for us. In this case, do what makes you feel comfortable.
But, we wonder, why does that bottom button always have to stay open? Why would you put a button on a jacket that you never use? Where does this tradition come from?
In the Past…
For the answer, we have to go back in time. To be precise, back to 1906. In England, 
Edward VII was in power from 1906 to 1910. Rumor has it that this man, like most of us, enjoyed a good drink and good food, and he became so overweight that he no longer fit into his waistcoat. Therefore, he left the bottom button open to make the outfit look better and feel much more comfortable. Out of respect for the king, more and more men began to follow suit, and that’s why we still do it today.
And it wasn’t just the rules for waistcoats that came from King Edward VII; he also set the stage for the jacket. The suit as we know it today was once better known as a ‘lounge suit.’ This casual costume was introduced in 1906 and became so popular that the traditional riding suit slowly disappeared. With this suit, it was customary to keep the bottom button of your jacket open, as it looked strange when you were on a horse. To maintain this old tradition, and we think also because of the size of his belly, King Edward did the same with his lounge suit. The English soon followed suit.
Today, waistcoats and jackets are designed to keep the bottom button open. If you don’t do this, you’ll disrupt the fit of your suit. In short, keep that button open!
