Vents In Suit Jackets, Button Hole In Lapels And Cricket

May 3rd, 2004

About Vents in Suit Jackets -

Did you know that the vent at the back of a man's jacket is a symbol of the time soldiers rode horseback?
The vent allowed their jackets to fall on either side of the riders' legs and so keep his powder dry to more effectively kill
his adversary.
Also, the side vents, if carrying a sword on the side, made it easier for the scabbard to sit properly while not disturbing the line of the jacket when on horseback.
Quite a nice little symbol to carry around with us when dressed in our Sunday best!
Side vents got transformed into a single center vent with the diminishing popularity of horses as a major mode of transport.


About Button holes on suit jacket lapels - also known as the bouttonnaire

When Prince Albert arrived in England in 1840, to marry Queen
Victoria, she gave him a tiny bouquet of flowers. The Prince, noted for his

charming little courtesies, took a penknife from his pocket, cut a hole in
the lapel of his coat and inserted the flowers. This was the first lapel
buttonhole. Prince Albert had his tailor make them in all his suits thereafter!


Cricket - and the Turn ups in pants - also called Pants Cuffs


Did you know that there is a belief that the fashionable origins or pants cuffs or turn ups are said to date to the 1860s when members of the Windsor cricket club began rolling up their trousers by hand to protect them from the mud. Tennis players began following suit, rolling up their flannel trousers before hitting the courts. When fashion tastemaker the Prince of Wales showed up to the Ascot races sporting the look, British gentlemen began imitating the style, initially causing quite a controversy.
Etiquette mavens disapproved of roll-ups or turn-ups, as they were
called, claiming that they collected dirt that would be brought indoors and
that men had to take care to turn them down before entering a respectable
indoor location. It wasn't until the look hit America that it began to be
referred to as the cuff.

From Ask Men