Sleeve Length Question

[RSS]

I always love reading this piece as Mr. Harvey (I really NEVER called him Colin) was indeed the most elegant man I've ever known.

The Most Elegant Man I've Ever Met..... - The Savile Row Tailor

…………And when these words are written by G. Bruce Boyer, everyone should sit up and take notice. The man whom he was referring to was Colin Harvey who spent many years as Cutter and Director at Anderson & Sheppard. I spent my formative years under him at Anderson & Sheppard, and as I was...

thesavilerowtailor.co.uk

 

[lexxdeleon]

I was taught and always believed that showing a little shirt cuff (in my case 1cm preference) was born out of function a long time ago.

Back in the 1800's? - shirts were simply viewed as underwear, things that got dirty and helped protect the jacket from becoming soiled too quickly from our own bodies. This applied even more so the collars and cuffs which tend to get dirty more quickly than other parts of the shirt. To the point wear collars and cuffs were made detachable so they were easier to clean separately.

While dress shirts are no longer viewed as just undergarments today, the same principles can apply today. You want to dry clean you jacket as infrequently as possible and dress shirts are now easily machined wash.

So by having a little shirt cuff show, you can ensure that your jacket sleeve fabric won't touch the skin of your wrist/palm/hand and picking up oil, dirt and dead or dry skin through the day.

This seems to have been confirmed for me personally when I was helping an older gentleman select a suit and have it tailored. He asked me about sleeve length and told him showing a little shirt cuff it would help protect the fabric at the jacket sleeve. He had somewhat of a eureka moment when he recalled dirty spots showing up on the sleeves of his jackets back in the day when he was wearing suits daily and didn't know where they came from - it likely came from making contact with his skin then picking up oils and dirt.

 

[Mirage-]

i have mostly heard the argument that it is visually pleasing because it harmonizes with the fact that your shirt collar protrudes from the jacket too, but that also makes perfect sense.

I was taught and always believed that showing a little shirt cuff (in my case 1cm preference) was born out of function a long time ago.

 

[Lev Vyacheslavovich]

I just want to add that I realized and Gianni Agnelli's tailored suits all have longer sleeves. So basically to conclude, unless if the length of the sleeves is in the extremes, the length is mainly based on preference. Some people like having the sleeves end around the wrist bone, or where the arm ends and the palm begins. Despite this, I also see many stylish figures having even longer sleeves ( sleeves ending slightly resting on the palm ). It seems that the only time when the sleeves are too long is when they actually end in the middle of the palm or close to it, which makes everything awkward. I originally made this thread, for beginners like me, who may be confused about this topic, due to the lack of threads like this! Hope all this information helps and thank you for those who replied on this thread! It was ver informative!