A idea about male and female buttons

​Women's buttons in the left, in order to force women to use the left button, to show that women's status is lower than men. (History: reputation stems southpaws poor reputation, cheap. )

The theory holds that with the advent of the sewing machine, the mass production of clothing, people consciously draw the direction of the men and women in the direction of the button, in this way to allow women to remember their status".

There are many obvious problems with this theory. First of all, at that time many tailors, artisans and designers were women. At the same time, many women still sew their own clothes, so they have no rules to remind them of their low status. They are more likely to follow the trend of fashion design than the self deprecating argument.
So, we're back to the question: why do people do this? There is also a saying that is similar to the first theory, which holds that the direction of the male and female buttons is related to the servant, but not to reduce the burden on the servant. At that time, it was a status symbol to change the clothes button from left to right, which means you are rich enough to dress yourself.

That time is the product of many fashion show, so that this statement was more reasonable. At that time, with the increasing sophistication of women's clothing, ladies do nothing to let the servants to help dress up more and more time. This means that you not only have the money to buy expensive clothes, enjoy valet service, but also a lot of money to be every day.

In 1899, Thorstein Veblen in "the theory of the leisure class" (Theory of the Leisure Class) wrote in nineteenth Century, the role of women in society is wealth. For them the best way is to spend a lot of money to dress himself, and every hand clothing to eat a ready-cooked meal, enjoy the idle servant serve.

The upper class woman with buttons direction of wealth, followed by people, so it became a trend, finally saved. Like the history of high heels. At the beginning of the world, men wore high heels, and when the common people began to follow suit, the celebrities wore higher heels and higher heels. However, when women began to wear high heels, the men gave up on it. Men's buttons on the right may be similar to high-heeled shoes: "my family does not need to wear their own clothes to prove my super rich, the man will not follow the trend of the integration of women."

Nineteenth Century in 40s and 50s, women's buttons in the left and right in the proportion of nearly 1:1. In nineteenth Century 60s, women almost all buttons left to right cover. This may be related to the emergence of the sewing machine. When the production of clothes, people follow the fashion style of the upper class; with the realization of mass production, the clothes become cheaper and more people to buy. Thus, women's buttons on the left gradually spread, and finally continued down.