Why do buttons on women's shirt sewn on the left and men on the right?

Answer 1

Lady's in the olden days were dressed by other women. Since most people are right handed the buttons were placed on the right as opposed to the left (for men).

Answer 2

It seems That the Victorian women of the 19th century did not dress themselves,so the buttons were designed so that right handed servants could dress them.Also,they were designed for nursing an infants on the side closest to the woman's heart.
An article by Mr. Dover of the Dallas Morning News noted that the first button jackets for men were modeled after the latching designs of armor,which were designed to stop a right handed opponent from jamming a pike through the seam.

Answer 3

The first answer is correct, but forgot to tell why men's are on the left side.
Men's buttoned clothing, originating in a sword-carrying society, opened in such a way that when the right hand reached over to the left side of the body, the sword would not snag on an opening in the garment as it was drawn.
Ladies were dressed by servants, thus their buttons were where it worked for the servants in front of them, to button them with their right hand

Answer 4

It is done because the button holes are on the right of womens blouses and on the left of mens shirts. It only makes sense to put the buttons on the other side from the button holes.

Answer 5

In the days when genttlemen and the ladies were dressed by lesser souls all buttons were on the left -when men had to carry pistols or daggers concealed -when treachery became more the voguie than weapons carried in sight this necessecitated a change in the position for the mens clothes -to provide the right hand more easy access to concealed weapons

Answer 6

As for why buttons on men's clothing are on the opposite side of the garment from women's, this again was a bow to convention. Most people are right-handed. Men generally dressed themselves, so their buttons are on the right. Women, on the other hand, at least those who could afford garments with buttons, frequently had a lady's maid to assist with the dressing process -- so the buttons were reversed to make it easier for the maid to do them up.

Answer 7

In olden days the buttons on ladies dresses were on the back. As someone else did the dressing, while facing the person in the dress, the buttons were placed so to make the buttoning the most efficient (button on the right - when you are facing the person) and easiest to push with the right thumb (the stronger thumb). Men were expected to dress themselves more often because the buttons were in the front, so the buttons are on the left when you are facing a man - so his right thumb does most of the pushing.

Answer 8

It comes from the old days in which men carried arms like swords and pistols and so on, and used usually their right hands, so the arms were placed in the way they could easily reach them. The same with clothes as they were warriors and then would need to dress and undress themselves in battle where there were no servants to help. Women on the contrary did not go to the war, did not carry arms, and had maids to do all the work, so they did not need the dresses to open on the reachable way for them to do it. Times have changed, huh? :-)

Answer 9

In the bad old days, ladies had maids to dress them. Gentlemen, on the other hand, were expected to button their own shirts. So a woman's garment is designed to be buttoned from in front of her, a man's is designed to be buttoned from inside him, if that makes sense. Then there is the right-handed chauvinism . . . Hey, of course I'm a leftie. All but politics.

Answer 10

In the old days they were all on the same side. They were changed to the right on men's coats when most men began to wear swords. Most men wore their sword on the left so the buttons were on the right so they could get the coat off quick when they had to. It was, and still is, easier to fight without your coat . You draw your sword with the right hand and unbutton your coat with the left. Dump the coat from your left arm, the sword to the left hand and dump coat on ground, switch sword to right hand and draw your dirk or pistol with the left.
This all works fine unless you are up against a viking who is beserking, they fought naked or with just a small amount of clothing and didn't have to mess around with all this coat stuff. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/berserker

Answer 11

Did you ever see a picture of Napoleon?

He liked to put his right hand in his jacket. For that reason his uniform was buttoned to allow him to do so. And his uniform became the pattern for all other uniforms to date, which became the pattern for all suits to date.

Women had there buttons in the back of their outfits. When back was changed to front the buttons wound up on the left side. Right became left in that manner.