The Buttonhole on Your Lapel Is Not a Buttonhole

There is a small hole on the lapel of a tailored jacket.

In Japan, it is often called a flower hole. In English, it is commonly referred to as a lapel buttonhole.

But there is something slightly strange about it.

There is no button.
So why is there a buttonhole?

It Really Was a Buttonhole

On modern jackets, the lapel buttonhole is not used to fasten a button.

Historically, however, this part of the jacket did serve as a functional buttonhole, when jackets were designed to close higher on the chest.

As the construction and way of wearing jackets changed, the button was no longer needed. The detail, however, remained.

Then it acquired another purpose:

wearing a flower.

Men were already wearing flowers through buttonholes by the 18th century. A 1771 portrait by Thomas Gainsborough of Captain William Wade, for example, shows a man wearing a flower through the upper buttonhole of his coat.

This tradition is why the detail is often referred to as a flower hole in Japan.

In French, a flower worn on the lapel is called a boutonnière.

Today, a boutonnière may still be worn on the lapel, particularly for formal occasions such as weddings.

There is also a famous story that Prince Albert created this tradition after receiving a bouquet of flowers from Queen Victoria and cutting a hole in his lapel to wear one.

It is a good story, but there is no reliable historical evidence to establish it as fact.

But Is It Really a Hole?

This is where tailoring becomes interesting.

A lapel buttonhole can be made in two different ways.

The first is to actually cut the fabric open, just like a real button hole.

When the hole is intended for a flower, this is the functional version.

A small loop can also be attached to the underside of the lapel, directly below the buttonhole. The stem of the flower can pass through this loop, helping to hold the flower securely in place.

The other option is to leave the fabric uncut.

The buttonhole stitching is still made, but there is no actual opening underneath it.

From the outside, the two can look almost identical.

One is a functioning opening.

The other simply represents one.

Why Leave It Closed?

On a modern jacket, there is rarely a practical reason to use the lapel buttonhole as an actual buttonhole.

For this reason, ready-to-wear jackets are often made with the buttonhole closed.

With bespoke or made-to-measure tailoring, however, whether the buttonhole is functional or decorative can be a deliberate choice.

If you intend to wear a flower, the opening needs to be functional.

A lapel pin is different.

Because the pin itself passes through the fabric, it can be worn whether the buttonhole is open or closed.

A Small Detail, With a Choice Behind It

The lapel buttonhole is one of the smallest details on a jacket.

Yet there are several decisions behind it:

Should it be open or closed?
Should it be functional?
Should there be a loop underneath?
Where should it be positioned, and how long should it be?

These choices may seem insignificant, but they are part of what makes tailoring different from simply making a jacket.

The buttonhole on the lapel began as a functional detail. Today, it may serve a practical purpose, a decorative one, or both.

So perhaps the most accurate way to describe it is this:

It is a buttonhole that no longer needs a button.

And that small contradiction is part of what makes tailoring so interesting.

 

For more information about the history of the buttonhole, see this related article.