cuff link

A customized cufflink.

This set of cufflinks and studs features pearl inlays.

The Montblanc Meisterstück cufflinks - gold and onyx.

A cufflink (also cuff link or cuff-link) is a decorative fastener worn by men or women to fasten the two sides of the cuff on a dress shirt or blouse.

Cufflinks are designed only for use with shirts which have buttonholes on both sides but no buttons. These may be either single or double-length ("French") cuffs, and may be worn either "kissing," with the ends pinched together, or "barrel-style," with one end overlapping the other. Kissing cuffs are usually preferred.

Cufflink designs vary widely. The simplest design consists of a short post or chain connecting two disc-shaped parts. The part positioned on the most visible side is usually larger; a variety of designs can connect the smaller piece: It may be small enough to fit through the button hole like a button would; it may be separated and attached from the other side; or it may have a portion that swivels on the central post, aligning with the post while the link is threaded through the button-hole and swiveling into a position at right angles to the post when worn.

The visible part of a cufflink is often monogrammed or decorated in some way. There are numerous styles including novelty cufflinks, traditional cufflinks, contemporary cufflinks, utility cufflinks, and humorous cufflinks.

Double-sided, Double-panel or Double-faced Cuff Links

"Double-face" cufflinks, also known as "double-panel" or "double-sided" cufflinks, trace their heritage to the early-1700s and the reign of Louis XIV (1638 to 1715). The forerunner of all of today’s several different cufflink designs, double-face cufflinks are signatured by a short, chain link that unites their two separate design panels and is responsible for their cuff "link" name.

Forerunner of today’s shirt first appeared in the early-1500s, its ruffled wristband finished with small openings on either side that tied together with "cuff strings." Although cuff strings would remain popular well into the nineteenth century, it was during the lavishly gilded rule of Louis XIV – famed for the ostentatiously baroque Palace of Versailles – that French aristocrats realized their wristbands offered yet another opportunity to boastfully flaunt their wealth and status.

By the late-1600s, royalty and monied patricians throughout Europe were fastening their shirt sleeves with boutons de manchette, or "sleeve buttons," typically identical pairs of colored glass buttons joined together by a short, linked chain. Cuff strings, their low-brow predecessor, would remain a fashion staple of the poor until the mid-1850s.

By the end of Louis’s post-Renaissance reign in 1715, simple, paste-glass buttons had given way to pairs of two, decoratively painted or jeweled studs, typically diamonds, connected by ornate gold links.

"Snap" style cufflinks were popular from 1910 through the early-1930s, an era of daringly dramatic designs, flamboyant fashions and an emphasis on modernism. Snaps locked together via a small projection on one end that pressed into a matching depression on the other end. Book-ending the Jazz Age, Roarin’ Twenties and Art Deco period, the most popular design motifs for early-1900 double-face snaps were inspired by these three, then pop cult design movements.

Hence was born the cuff "link" eponym. Whether simple glass buttons or the gilded and bejeweled studs favored by aristocrats, thank the short, chain-like link for their now universal sobriquet. With their generic name was also born the predecessor of today’s "double-sided" cufflinks, also known by their equally popular "double-panel" or "double-face" names. Over the next 300-years, the three pseudonyms would be swapped around synonymously and double-sided cufflinks would win a vaunted status as one of fashion’s iconic classics.

To this day, double-sided cufflinks are the de rigueur fashion choice of the world’s best dressed men and remain the emblematic standard bearer of sartorial elegance throughout the world, save for America which stands the lone exception.

"The most prized examples of cufflink art have always relied on all four sides to convey their craftsmanship and lineage," tells noted American fashion designer and top selling author, Alan Flusser, in his style primer, Dressing the Man, adding that: "To fully exploit the cuff link’s decorative potential, each side should bear a design and connect with a chain or link." A champion of "sartorially correct" dressing – double-faced cuff links, included – Flusser warns that: "Wearing cuff links that clip on one-side exposes the super-structure and suggests you could only afford the gold or gemstone on the outside. The best made cuff links and the most elegant are those with matching sides," tells Flusser.^[1]

G. Bruce Boyer, Town & Country's one-time fashion director and author of numerous fashion articles and books, is another advocate of double-faced cufflinks. Inventively, Boyer adds tie-clips and collar-bars to double-face cufflinks, then coins the term, "shirt jewelry" to describe the trio. "Simple wrist watch and shirt jewelry rank the only adornment appropriate for a sophisticated, gentleman's-gentleman," tells Boyer.^[2]

"Dumbbell" or shank-style cufflinks rocketed to fashion’s forefront during the early-1900s. Then, as now, they enjoyed their greatest popularity in America. Thanks to their gently curved but rigid shank, dumbbell style cufflinks deliver unrivaled ease of attachment and removal, a pragmatic asset in the context of Yankee ingenuity and America’s no-nonsense man.

Like snaps and chain linked double-panel cufflinks, dumbbell styles are coveted by a small niche of classic-minded, fashion connoisseurs.]]

Add the frequently quoted fashion historian, J. Andy Stinson, author of the upcoming Iconic Fashion Classics. A Storied History of Fashion, to the list of double-sided devotees. "Admittedly double-sided cufflinks are nearly twice the cost of single-sided links," concedes Stinson. "And granted, it’s far easier to push a rounded post through four buttonholes. But ‘easier’ and ‘cheaper’ aren’t compelling rationales among connoisseurs. Ironically," explains Stinson, "it’s the opposite reasons that tell why the world’s best dressed men wear double-faced cufflinks, exclusively.

"Double-sided cufflinks communicate an unspoken but mutually recognized savior faire that Instantly identifies one connoisseur to another and their concern for attention paid to the smallest details. Among fashion’s insiders, they signal a grasp of history and a mutually shared awareness of fashion protocol and sartorial decorum. Collectively, they distinguish the fashion savvy savant from the mediocrity of ‘masses-fashion,’" adds Stinson.^[3]

The December, 2009, issue of Cigar Aficionado confirms not just Stinson’s endorsement of double-sided cufflinks, but Flusser’s and Boyer’s, as well: "The charm of the cuff link is an understated expression of personality as it peeks from your sleeve. Predictably, the doubled version ups the price, but the payoff for the redundancy is that the cuff link shows all its glory from whatever angle your sleeve is viewed," extolls Jack Bettridge, Cigar Aficionado’s senior editor, in his Cuff Link feature story.^[4]

Despite remaining Europe's dominant cufflink design since the early-1700s and their continued embrace by the world's best dressed men, double-sided cufflinks have virtually disappeared from America. Retail price is a major reason: Single-sided cufflinks are about half the cost of double-sided cufflinks. Added ease of insertion and fastening, then removal, are the other advantages single-sided cufflinks offer.

Still, that only partly explains the American demise of double-sided cufflinks, despite their flourishing throughout Europe.

Trace their near-death to American inventor, George Kermentz. Then, thank middle-class America's ignorance of fashion decorum and protocol for delivering their fatal, coup d'etat.

Credit George Kermentz for everything "cufflinks Americana-style," tells Stinson’s Iconic Fashion Classics, which also credits Kermentz for the little known fact that single-sided cufflinks are uniquely American.

In the 1880s, George Kermentz, a Newark, New Jersey, jeweler and inventor began mass producing single-sided cufflinks from a converted, Civil War-era cartridge shell machine, tells Stinson. Hence was born the "single-faced" cufflink: A one-piece, "button-back" design with a decoratively embellished crown at one end and a smaller but plain metal head at the opposite end.

Once allied with the earlier debut of electroplating, the most significant result of Kermentz’s invention is that, together, the two technologies ignited one of America’s first, mass-market fashion crazes: The first, inexpensive cufflinks affordable to America’s fast emerging clique of middle class office clerks.

The three "dumbbell" styles in the above photo represent shank-joined, double-face cufflinks. The two on the left are made by Baade II. The pair on the right are by Cartier and illustrate classic designs that have remained popular since the early-1900s. Historically, nautical and equestrian themes, similar to those in the photo, have been the overwhelmingly favored design motifs used in double face, dumbbell style cufflinks.

Silk knot

An alternative fastener to a cufflink is the cheaper silk knot, which are also known as monkey's fists. The Paris shirtmaker Charvet is credited with their introduction in the beginning of the 20th century: "Charvet [link] buttons of twisted braid are quite the style" noted the New York Times in 1908.^[5] French cuff shirts are often accompanied with a set of color-coordinated silk knots instead of double-button cufflinks. They are now rarely made from silk; often they are made from elastic.

This French cuff is fastened with gold-coloured silk knots.

References