French Cuff Query

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Spinal

Spinal

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Here's one for the board...

I regularly wear french cuffs to work - I love them. I have a range of cufflinks, from little silk knots, to novelty (tetris shaped) ones, to shiny golden ones, to formal black/silver bars.

Depending on the occasion, I change the cufflink to suit.

The other day, as I left a clients office, one of my colleagues noted that he found it odd that I always wear cufflinks instead of buttoned-wrist shirts. He went on to suggest that it may be better to "tone down" to buttoned cuffs when at client-site.

Now, this was a bit of banter with friends - but it did hit a point I'm curious about given my lack of fashion sense...

What's the consensus? Are cufflinks for everyday "work" wear OTT? Are they fine?

M
 
Depends on the line of business you are in and your customers. If my plumber turned up wearing cufflinks I would be surprised, if my solicitor turned up in overalls likewise. However, there is a point about being over-dressed in particular jobs - if a car salesman wore Turnbull and Asser (three button cuffs to confuse the unwary), had shiny shoes and dressed too expensively I'd run a mile. As Oscar Wilde said, only a fool doesn't judge by appearances.

I never once wore a button cuff shirt to work, however my suits did. For work, I never had a shirt with a breast pocket or indeed wore an identity card lanyard round my neck. When dress down came I ignored it. I did have gravy stains on my Hermes ties, but only until I could replace it.
 
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Funny you mention dress down days - we have dress down Friday's... but I've never been too fond of them!

Line of work - of course, tiny detail :p I do GRC Consultancy - (Governance, Risk and Compliance); primarily around information security. Typical days can range from crawling under a desk to find an errant wireless access point to presenting to c-level board members... so overalls are probably out :p

M.
 
I generally wear cuff links and I think they are perfectly acceptable for everyone who wears a 'smart' shirt, and especially a tie.

As an aside, you can get nice cufflinks (gold/silver) very cheaply at 'antique' (read second hand) shops as they are not in fashion and are only worth weighing in.
 
Ted said:
I generally wear cuff links and I think they are perfectly acceptable for everyone who wears a 'smart' shirt, and especially a tie.

As an aside, you can get nice cufflinks (gold/silver) very cheaply at 'antique' (read second hand) shops as they are not in fashion and are only worth weighing in.
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Here are some of my favorite (very informal) ones... I saw some I really liked on etsy; made to order and monogrammed... on a PCB!

M.
 

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One can always remove a jacket, tie, cufflinks and roll up one's shirt sleeves..

Try smartening up a tee-shirt, jeans and trainers!

My point has always been to dress smartly, if I find the occasion a little more "casual" I'll remove my tie etc.. as I feel fit. Very hard to go the other way.
 
Ted said:
As an aside, you can get nice cufflinks (gold/silver) very cheaply at 'antique' (read second hand) shops as they are not in fashion and are only worth weighing in.
Click to expand...

Exactly - don't buy new. I was fortunate to have been given a pair of gold monogrammed link cufflinks for my christening, and the only time I have ever bought cufflinks is on a plane on my way to a wedding when I realised I'd left the links at home (because I was wearing an informal shirt).
 
Cuff links and Button down.

That reminds me Charles i must take mt Hermes ties to the cleaners. Never wear a tie when eating Spaghetti.
 
Striped shirts, 100% cotton, double cuffs + cuff links.
Many years back I had some £1 coins colour enamelled and converted to cuff links.
As a Finance Director, I thought these pretty appropriate!
I love cuff links and striped shirts.
I've worn them with practically every type of formal and informal attire.
My wife complains that I have loads of shirts and precious little else in the way of clothes.
 
C43AMG said:
I have a client who has used Huntsman since his father took him there for his first pair of long trousers, a great tailor.
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Indeed.

Sharp looking suit with too many non functional cuff buttons on the jacket? Belt loops on the trousers?
Red lining?

Sure sign of a cad.
 
I got around this by all my working life wearing short sleeve shirts :D

But when I go out dressed up, for sure cufflinks are the way to go.
 
Good cufflinks will sit well with a smart shirt and suit and set a high standard of appearance. However, "novelty" ones are likely to undermine this and may be seen as naff in the same way as those cartoon ties of the 1990's.
 
A German colleague on long term secondment to London (a very good guy who just needed the square edges rubbed off on first arriving) turned up in a short sleeved shirt in the summer, to be met by the chorus of "had an accident with your lawnmower on the weekend Steve..."
 
Thinking about the question further, I think your colleague may have a point, if not necessarily particularly well expressed. A simple little equation should suffice

If the visible % of man-made fibre in the clothing being worn by the client>25% then wear button cuffs, otherwise double cuffs. I wouldn't spend too much time speculating about the hidden clothing percentage unless your presentation is more than usually dull.
 
Charles - you over-estimate my ability to tell wool from polyester!

That said, I could just go by the static... if the woolen suit rubbing on the polyester chair cloth causes them to get electrocuted whenever they get grounded - it's cufflink time...

M.
 
Scott_F said:
Beware the short-sleeved shirt - no one wants to see their colleague's hairy armpits !
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Funny thing was when I started at this particular establishment I had never worn them before, but just about everyone from the cleaners to the Chairman wore them (it being a US based company, short sleeves is more prevelant over the pond) after a few weeks wearing "shorties" it felt just right, so much more comfortable and easier to keep clean in an engineering environment.
As for hairy armpits, that was confined to the female cleaners :eek:

:D
 
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