The History of Cufflinks

Thu Jul 24th 2008

So where did this fashion trend begin?  The French-cuff shirt and cufflink has a long and interesting history intertwined with the development of buttons, the worked buttonhole, the Industrial Revolution and the evolution of men's fashion.  Cufflinks were never designed as an accessory.  Back in the day the cufflink was created simply as a method to fasten a cuff.

Until the beginning of the 17th the century, cufflinks didn't exist.  Men retained their cuffs by ribbons or string.  The first cufflinks were buttons joined together by a short chain.   Some of these were designed in a rigid dumbbell shape with a bar connecting the two halves to make it easier to insert into both sides of the cuff.  

By the end of the 19th century cufflinks become an essential part of the male wardrobe.  They remained fairly conservative in their style and were the epitome of elegance.  At the beginning of the 20th century, very imaginative English creators, like large jewellers (Cartier, Tiffany...) adored "Art nouveau". Materials such as opaline, enamels, crystal, pearl, precious stones began to feature in cufflinks. 

In 1924, the fastener system (still used today in cufflinks) made up of a tilting stick for cufflinks was introduced.  This allowed makers many more design opportunities.  The cufflink fashion evolved and continued strong for several decades.

In the Seventies, shirts with built-in buttons at the cuff were introduced and began to replace cufflinks.  Many men disappointed in this fought long and hard to keep the cufflink fashion alive.  It wasn't until the nineties that we saw cufflinks come back.  It was at this point that cufflinks became a fashion accessory again, young people discovered this and a new generation of cufflink wearers was born.