placket

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Illustration of a placket, or opening, made in the upper part of a petticoat or skirt for convenience in putting it on.

A placket is the fabric that surrounds and reinforces fasteners in a garment such as buttons, snaps, or a zipper. Plackets are almost always used to allow clothing to be put on or removed easily, but are sometimes used purely as a design element.

In modern usage, the term "placket" often refers to the double layers of fabric that hold the buttons and buttonholes in a shirt. Plackets can also be found at the neckline of a shirt, the cuff of a sleeve, or at the waist of a skirt or pair of trousers.

Plackets are almost always made of more than one layer of fabric, and often have interfacing in between the fabric layers. This is done to give support and strength to the placket fabric because the placket and the fasteners on it are often subjected to stress when the garment is worn. The two sides of the placket often overlap. This is done to protect the wearer from fasteners rubbing against their skin and to hide underlying clothing or undergarments.

A button front shirt without a separate pieced placket is called a "French Front." The fabric is simply folded over and the buttonhole stitching secures the two layers (or three layers if there is an interlining). This method affords a very clean finish especially if heavily patterned fabrics are being used. This method is normally only used in stiff-fronted formal evening (white tie) shirts however, the normal placket on a shirt being separate to give a symmetrical appearance.

If the buttons are concealed by a separate flange or flap of the shirting fabric running the length of the placket, it is called a "Fly Front". The inner placket of a "Fly Front" shirt can be made as a the less constructed "French Front" placket or as a fully constructed regular placket.

Historically, a 'placket' may also be:

• A decorative front-panel used to fill in the opening of a doublet or gown (later called a stomacher).^[1]
• A decorative panel or "forepart" (see 1500-1550 in Fashion) attached to a woman's petticoat.^[2]
• An opening or slit in a skirt or petticoat to access a separate hanging pocket.^[3]

References

• OED
• Mikhaila, Ninya: The Tudor Tailor: reconstructing sixteenth-century dress, ISBN 0-89676-255-6