Technique · Construction
The hand-worked buttonhole
Twenty minutes of silk and gimp for a hole that a machine can cut in fifteen seconds.
A hand-worked buttonhole is cut, then bound with dense silk stitches worked over a gimp cord, producing a raised, slightly three-dimensional edge that tightens the hole and resists stretching. The Milanese version, worked in glossy silk, is the most conspicuous piece of handwork on a jacket.
How it differs from a machine hole
A machine buttonhole is a dense zigzag stitched flat around a cut slot. A hand buttonhole is worked with a buttonhole stitch, each stitch knotted at the edge, over a fine cord that gives the edge body. The result sits proud of the cloth, holds its shape, and does not fray as it wears.
It also takes fifteen to twenty-five minutes each, by a person, which is why a jacket with twelve of them carries a price attached to that fact.
The lapel buttonhole
The buttonhole on the left lapel, for a flower, in principle, is the one houses show off, and the Milanese asola lucida, worked in shining silk with a long tapered keyhole, is the ornamental extreme.
Whether the lapel buttonhole is cut through or merely embroidered on the surface is a real distinction. Cut through, it works; embroidered, it is a picture of a buttonhole. Both are found on expensive clothing.
The working cuff argument
Functioning cuff buttonholes (surgeon's cuffs) are a bespoke convention because a bespoke sleeve is finished to final length before the buttonholes are cut. On ready-to-wear they are a problem: once cut, the sleeve cannot be shortened from the cuff.
A jacket sold with working cuffs and unaltered sleeves is asking the customer to accept the maker's sleeve length, which is a strange thing to charge extra for. The detail signals bespoke; on a rack it frequently signals the opposite.
At a glance
Who works with it
Houses and mills on this site with a documented connection to The hand-worked buttonhole.
01
Bespoke tailor Camps de Luca
Camps de Luca is a Paris tailor known for fine hand sewing and a signature lapel where collar and lapel meet in a mouth-like notch.
02
Guide How to tell a well-made jacket in ninety seconds
Six shop checks, such as buttonholes, lining, shoulder and whether patterns line up at seams, reveal how well a jacket was made.
03
Technique Pick stitching
The small visible stitches along a lapel edge: sometimes a hand finish, more often a machine imitating one.
04
Garment The suit
A suit is simply a jacket and trousers, sometimes with a waistcoat, made from the same cloth at once so they match exactly.
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Milanese buttonhole
Glossary term
A hand-worked lapel buttonhole in glossy silk with a long tapered keyhole: asola lucida. The most conspicuous piece of hand finishing on a jacket, and purely ornamental.
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Boutonnière loop
Glossary term
A small thread loop behind the left lapel, holding the stem of a flower against the cloth. Its presence indicates a working lapel buttonhole rather than an embroidered one.
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Hand-finished
Glossary term
A description with no fixed meaning. It can cover a garment with one hand-sewn operation or thirty. The useful question is which operations, not whether the phrase appears.
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Surgeon's cuffs
Glossary term
Cuff buttonholes that actually open, so the sleeve can be unbuttoned. A bespoke convention (the sleeve is finished to length before the holes are cut) and a problem on…
Picture credits 5
- A hand-worked silk buttonhole: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- An illustration of the house's recorded cut: roped shoulder, full canvas chest, sharp, strongly built shoulder, defined waist. Not a photograph of the house's own work.: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- A cuff with working buttonholes: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- Pick stitches along a lapel edge: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- A navy suit on a valet stand: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art