Jeff Banks takes the time to look through the two different cuff types in men’s formal shirts – with a little bit of history.
Another important factor in a shirt is the cuff. Two Kinds of cuff, in the main – one of them is called a single cuff, and the other one a double fold back – or even sometimes – a French cuff.
The single cuff is actually a single thickness and it buttons across, either with one button, two buttons, and sometimes even and extra buttonhole so that you can wear it with cufflinks – so that is a single cuff.
So, this is a double cuff. So, it’s twice the width, it actually folds back on itself, it then wraps around to take a cufflink, and I’ve added a tab on most of my double cuffs. So, a double cuff was instigated when men actually only ever changed their shirt about once a week, 150 years ago.
They would have a double cuff so sometimes they could turn the cuff inside out and wear it that way – and the reason you find two buttonholes on a lot of shirts is that they could fold the double cuff back and get a few extra days wear out of it, because it wasn’t grubby.
So, a double cuff – sometimes called a French cuff – is quite a luxury, and that’s a special shirt when you want to wear cufflinks and you want to dress up. That’s the double cuff.
