Why are jackets to be left open?

[rtc872]

I have been wondering for a while why the rule that jackets are to be left undone.

When it comes to suits the rule is the exact opposite. The reason being that this allows the jacket to hang properly and it (on british style suits) to emphasise the waist and make one look slimmer.

So why do you think? I have no idea...

Cheers

[druid]

if you mean by jacket...a "sport coat" [a common US term for it] I guess it's because it's a "less formal" looking....uh..."sort-of-dressed" look.

...as opposed to a business suit, which is typically buttoned [with the exception to the bottom button] until the wearer sits down.

[BoldHighlander]

I suspect he mean's a kilt jacket.

I don't know......where is Jock or MoR when we need them?

[Jock Scot]

I am here, but I am not sure that I am going to help a lot! Yes indeed with a suit jacket and sports jacket, the centre button is done up whilst standing(three buttons done up on your hacking jacket whilst riding) and kilt jackets(most) are left open----I have no idea why the kilt jacket is left open! In 70 years I have never been able to find out and when I have asked my tailor(s) about it,there has been a sharp intake of breath and then the comment "its just not done".

Now I have heard it said that it is a fashion started by some one ( like the Duke of Windsor) famous and the reason has been lost in the mists of time. I have also heard it said that the Highlanders leave their jackets open because the Lowlanders don't and I have also heard it said, "with the weather we have in Scotland only damn fools would go around without the jacket done up----- and that's us!", but the truth of the matter is, I don't honestly know!

As an aside, I do think that the kilt jacket does look much better undone.---------- and perhaps the answer is as simple as that?

[artificer]

I am here, but I am not sure that I am going to help a lot! Yes indeed with a suit jacket and sports jacket, the centre button is done up whilst standing(three buttons done up on your hacking jacket whilst riding) and kilt jackets(most) are left open----I have no idea why the kilt jacket is left open! In 70 years I have never been able to find out and when I have asked my tailor(s) about it,there has been a sharp intake of breath and then the comment "its just not done".

Now I have heard it said that it is a fashion started by some one ( like the Duke of Windsor) famous and the reason has been lost in the mists of time. I have also heard it said that the Highlanders leave their jackets open because the Lowlanders don't and I have also heard it said, "with the weather we have in Scotland only damn fools would go around without the jacket done up----- and that's us!", but the truth of the matter is, I don't honestly know!

As an aside, I do think that the kilt jacket does look much better undone.

Jock, this reminds me of Michael McIntyre's "The Birth of the Kilt" when he talks about all the Scots getting together to 'design the Scot' to be as opposite the British as humanly possible.

[OC Richard]

I nearly always button one button of my Argyll jacket when I'm out playing the pipes for an event.

Over the years I've dispensed with both waistcoat and belt, and button the jacket. This means I have two less things to put on for a gig, I can drive to the gig more comfortably in my car.

Also it gives me a crisper, smarter, slimmer profile (which I embrace due to my middle-age avoirdupois ).

Let's see some modern-day people...

the stewards at the Argyllshire Games (only one fellow is buttoned) :



modern Drum Majors at Shotts (note the twin buttons with chains) :



a gathering of the world's top pipers:



Here's some pipers at Oban in 1950:




But what about the historical background?

In 1700, Lord Duffus is buttoned up:



In the late 18th century jackets were always open. By the end of the century the jackets often had hook-and-eye fastenings at the top, which appears to be the case here:



But after 1800 a new jacket style came into fashion which was buttoned across:

[OC Richard]

What do we see in the third and fourth quarters of the 19th century?

The jackets were often cut so as to show a small lapel and only have the top button buttoned:









But other jackets were designed to be fully buttoned:






and we also see jackets cut more or less like today's and left open:




Here are Argyll jackets shown buttoned in the 1930s, by the very tailors themselves:



This check tweed appears to be fastened by a cufflink type thing perhaps:



and in 1940 we can clearly see a buttoned Argyll, by the tailors themselves:

[rtc872]

I am referring to kilt jackets. Thanks

All that I guess is that the kilt jacket is cut different to make sure it doesn't flop like a dead fish.

My tutor also told me to button up while playing only because there is nothing more annoying than the jacket getting caught between bag and armpit

[Jock Scot]

I am referring to kilt jackets. Thanks

All that I guess is that the kilt jacket is cut different to make sure it doesn't flop like a dead fish.

My tutor also told me to button up while playing only because there is nothing more annoying than the jacket getting caught between bag and armpit

That makes sense. I am not a piper but as a lad in the 1940's we used to be told in no uncertain terms that when we carried a gun our jacket button, on tweed kilt jackets and tweed shooting coats, should always be done up. In that case(like a pipers jacket apparently) it does stand to reason

[OC Richard]

Yes every image I showed above was of a kilt jacket. Kilt jackets (that is, by definition, any jacket intended to be worn with kilts) have changed a lot over the years.

You bring up another reason for a piper to button his jacket! And that is, if your jacket is hanging open there's a 50/50 chance that when you strike in the pipes the jacket will get pulled up in an unsightly way.