The Elegance of French Cuff Shirts
French cuff shirts are no longer the finely-dressed European man's secret.
A French cuff or double cuff (primarily a British term) is a cuff on a dress shirt men of stylethat is folded back and then closed with cufflinks instead of buttons.
Cufflinks exist solely for use on french cuff shirts.
Therein lies the very reason that many upper echelon dressers love these dashing shirts, because they get to appease their ever insatiable cufflink addictions. We all have our struggles do we not? The French cuff is heaven sent for style and swagger.
Interestingly enough, instead of cufflinks, French cuff dress shirts can also be closed with the less expensive, but still formal and well-regarded, silk knots, often referred to as monkey's fists. Silk knots tend to be better known in Europe than in the United States. These stylish shirts should always be made of fine cloth and fairly discreet patterns, they should ONLY be worn with suits and never worn on a shirt with a button down collar. The cuff of the dress shirt should touch the base of your wrist, and about a half inch of “linen” should show beyond the sleeve of the jacket when the arm is at one’s side. These great shirts are considered to be more formal & stylish than button cuffs. French cuffs are a matter of preference.
French cuff shirts are making a huge showing in the workplace today, as men are paying more attention to looking sharp than ever before.For a job interview in a business environment, shirts with barrel cuffs are generally preferred to those with French cuffs.
French cuffs are a very attractive, dressed-up look. They frame one’s suit nicely, and furthermore, cufflinks give finely-dressed gentlemen a legitimate outlet for wearing fine jewelry without seeming garish.
Unfortunately, many fashion-challenged men seem to believe that a neo-Pilgrim plainness of dress indicates some sort of virtue. That notion is laughable at best! As if wearing only white button-downs expresses a lack of vanity and pretense or a purity of heart. These extremely stylish shirts are an absolute "must have" item for a man of style and swagger. Variety is the spice of life, and no wardrobe should consist solely of barrel cuffs, for fear of boring one's self into a coma.
