Traditional handkerchief usage

[JSFMACLJR]

You know, Tobus, this has to be one of the oddest questions asked in XMTS!

I'll frequently tuck a handkerchief up my sleeve, folded--but not precisely.

[Tobus]

You know, Tobus, this has to be one of the oddest questions asked in XMTS!

Well, to be honest, I've read about it but never seen anybody do it. I mentioned it to a couple of people I know, and they gave me odd looks and asked me why the heck anybody would put a handkerchief in their sleeve.

The only handkerchiefs I see around here are in peoples' pockets or tied around their necks/heads. Almost nobody uses hankys any more. I just thought that if there's some historical precedent for carrying it in the sleeve, it might be kind of a cool thing to do (but only when clean, of course). I know it seems like an odd question, but it really shouldn't be more odd than discussing the various ways to wear a pocket watch or other traditional accoutrement.

[Squeaky McMurdo]

I'm not proud of knowing this, but Cassanova used to park hankies in his armpits and then wave them under the noses of damsels he wanted to seduce. Or so I'm told. Also, I've never personally tried it.

This is similar to where the saying "The Apple of my eye" came from. A gentleman would keep an apple in his armpit and present it to a lady he fancied to sniff. I would guess the same was done with hankies when apples weren't available. Pheromones I suppose.

And FYI, everytime my husband mentions this bit of trivia, I tell him that I will not sniff his armpit apples...

--Chelsea McMurdo--

[Bruce Scott]

In the Australian Army it is a custom peculiar to artillery officers when wearing mess kit. Officers of other corps consider it foppish.

[MacLowlife]

I believe it was common practice with ladies everywhere (my grandmother) well into the 20th century and with men in England ( and probably the whole UK ) as well. I once read a description someone gave of William Faulkner as having "a handkerchief up his sleeve like a proper Englishman". I know plenty of people (or have known, many of them no longer on this plane) who carried a "working" handkerchief, including a neatly folded bandanna in a back pocket.

It is a practical thing, particularly in cold season, but also at funerals, etc. They seem to have been issued to US soldiers up through WWII. I have bought German enlisted men's packets that included them that probably dated to the 70s.

If you try to read about handkerchief carrying etiquette ( and can google past all of the "handkerchief sleeve blouse" references ) you will eventually run into what we might call the show/blow dichotomy. If you are sporting a handkerchief in your breast pocket and you actually NEED it, you might not want to be sticking the moist item back in for display. Presumably, folding it in a different manner and slipping it into a different pocket is the best course. And, as mentioned above, if you don't have a pocket, you might put it up your sleeve. Of course, it doesn't take up much room to carry the display model up top and the utility model elsewhere.

Our old pal the Duke of W:


http://www.newstatesman.com/200410040052

I am just glad to see someone else actually looking in this forum. We don't get many posts here lately, odd, exciting, or otherwise. Thanks, everyone, for the contributions.

[Riverkilt]

Been using handkerchiefs since I was a boy...up in Oregon seems everyone always had the sniffles...today, sniffles are a side effect of some meds. Carry mine in my back pocket - except at home when wearing a sweatshirt...then tuck it in the sleeve. Just plain convenient. Don't do the sleeve thing in public though.

[NewEnglander]

My girlfriend still cringes whenever I pull out my handkerchief, but I'd rather have it in my pocket than have to scramble to find a tissue. And if I remember correctly, my grandmother used to keep tissues up her sleeve during the "sniffle season".

[Keiko]

My elderly school teacher at all girl school in UK used to carry her handkerchief in her sleeves.

[Jack Daw]

I use a utilitarian handkerchief for nothing other than wiping away perspiration (we dispense plenty in SE Texas). When I was a kid, I used a handerchief for blowing my nose, but these days, why keep such an unsanitary "rag" in my pocket (or sleeve) when I can easily use and discard a tissue (which I always keep convenient)?

[Lyle1]

According to Alan Flusser in STYLE AND THE MAN, 1996, ( a gift, I swear), England's Richard II, "declared it borrish to blow one's nose either on one's sleeve or on the floor," and thus handkerchief's became "a symbol of gentility and social rank." He also states that World War I officers kept handkerchiefs in their coats sleeves because their uniform pockets were often buttoned down or flapped over, making them hard to open quickly.

I've also read that during many periods, pockets were rare in man's dress clothing, and gentlemen carried small items in their sleeves or in their cummerbunds. And that is why cummerbunds are worn with the pleats open upward.

Is this fashion week on XMTS? First sleeves, now hankies?