The key difference between men and women’s clothes

Social media users are discovering there is a key difference between men and women’s shirts – with no clear answer on why.

Social media users have been left stunned after realising there is a huge difference in shirts designed for the male and female body.

People have started to realise that women’s shirt buttons are on the left side, while men’s are on the right – with many questioning these details.

“I *just* found out that shirt buttons are on the left for women and right for men. Wtf!!!!” one Twitter user exclaimed.

“I was today years old when I learned that women’s shirts have buttons on the left side!” wrote another.

There are a few theories that date back centuries, such as the idea that wealthy women didn’t dress themselves but had others to do it for them, the NY Post reported.

It all has to do with the buttons. Picture: iStock

Assuming that most people are right-handed, the buttons on women’s clothes were sewn so that someone else could fasten them.

“Why women’s shirts button from the left, while men’s button from the right: When buttons first appeared in the 17th century, they were only for the wealthy. Women were dressed by (right-handed) servants. Placing buttons on the left made it easier for them,” one author tweeted, along with a photo of a passage from The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas.

In 2016, fashion historian Chloe Chapin informed The Today Showabout button placement.

“I think it’s important to question which time period we’re talking about, since shirt and jacket buttons are a relatively new phenomenon,” Ms Chapin said.

“But as a general rule, many elements of men’s fashion can be traced back to the military.”

Assuming most men were right-handed, putting buttons on the right side allowed better “access to a weapon,” which “practically trumped everything,” she explained, adding that a gun hidden in a shirt would be easier to grab with the dominant hand.

Another theory, Ms Chapin offered, is that button placement distinguished women’s and men’s clothing at a time when that mattered. Women’s outfits became more “masculine” in the 1880s, but it was still “illegal” to be “dressed like a man in public”.

Other theories revolve around the need to breastfeed and care for a child.

According to Southern Living, clothing-makers again assumed most women were right-handed and would be carrying infants in their left arm. If they needed to breastfeed, they could use their right hand to unbutton their shirts.

There is a key difference between men and women's shirts. Picture: iStock

An Elle article noted an unconfirmed theory that Napoleon was offended that people would mock his hand-in-coat stance, ordering that women’s clothing be buttoned the opposite of men’s so they wouldn’t mimic him.

Or, of course, it could just be outright gender inequality. The fact that women’s clothing buttoned opposite of men’s was a sign of inferiority, according to the 19th century sexologist Havelock Ellis.

The assumption at the time was that women were weaker and required more assistance, hence, the commonplace need for handmaids dressing them every day.

By buttoning their clothing on the left, women would “seem inferior to men” in “strength and in rapidity and precision of movement”.

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission