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From: features@ihuxf.UUCP (M.A. Zeszutko)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Shirt buttons
Message-ID: <2587@ihuxf.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 13:47:17 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxf.2587
Posted: Mon Apr 15 13:47:17 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Apr-85 05:50:35 EST
References: <1649@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 21

> This has been bugging me lately...
> 
> Does anyone know why (historically and currently) women's shirts button
> right over left and men's button left over right (or is it vice versa)?
> Why make the thing differently depending on who is supposed to wear it?
> 
> Elizabeth Clayton
> ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-satan!clayton

Yes.  Historically, women's clothing buttons/fastens on the "other side"
because some women used to have maids to help them dress.  It was assumed
a man would button his own shirt, and that a woman would have help
(logically enough, since buttons went down the back in many instances).
I'm not sure why it continues today; tradition, maybe.
	BTW, do you know why men's suitcoats have buttons on the
sleeves?  Historical trivia may be answered by
-- 

aMAZon @ AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL; ihnp4!ihuxf!features

"Uh-oh, now the cat's out of the bag!"  -- Prudence