Buttonhole

A buttonhole is a reinforced slit or loop in the edge of a garment that lets a button pass through and holds the opening closed.

How did the 18th century define it?

The Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert (1751) calls the buttonhole a long, narrow opening that tailors cut in garments, men's especially, so they can be opened and closed with buttons. It says the button is on the right and the buttonhole on the left, and that the button enters the buttonhole from beneath. The edges are bordered with a firm, narrow, slightly raised stitching made in silk, thread, or gold and silver thread, depending on how rich the dress is, and the ends are held by two bars. The entry also separates open buttonholes from closed ones, which sit where buttonholes were once used and where the button and buttonhole are now only ornament.

Where can you see worked buttonholes?

Two Victoria and Albert Museum records of men's waistcoats count worked buttonholes along the left front and buttons on the right front: 12 on a British linen waistcoat of 1755–60 and 13 on a French satin one of the 1760s. The museum's record of a woman's French Brunswick jacket of 1765–75 counts 17 buttons on the right front and 17 buttonholes on the left. Decorative buttons need no hole: on a blue silk waistcoat of the 1740s the buttons on the pocket flaps are ornamental and have no buttonholes.

For the question of why men's and women's garments later closed on opposite sides, the buttonhole side is the side to watch.

Sources

1. L'Encyclopédie, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1751), 'BOUTONNIERE' (Wikisource transcription). Diderot and d'Alembert (Wikisource transcription)
2. Waistcoat, 1760–1769 (T.283-1910). Victoria and Albert Museum
3. Waistcoat, 1755–1760 (T.158-1975). Victoria and Albert Museum
4. Waistcoat, 1740–1749 (O127185). Victoria and Albert Museum
5. Brunswick, 1765–1775 (T.331-1985). Victoria and Albert Museum

Read more

• Why Men's and Women's Buttons Sit on Opposite Sides

Last updated October 16, 2026 · Markdown