Why do mens suits have buttons on the sleeves?
Dear Cecil: There comes a time in every upwardly mobile young man’s life when he has to face up to buying a suit. While doing so recently I noticed, as if for the first time, the buttons sewn on the bottom side of the coat sleeves. They had always been there, I suppose, but never before had they seemed so conspicuously useless. The salesman couldn’t tell my why the buttons were there; neither could the tailor. Now I’m becoming obsessed. What’s the scoop, Cecil? — M.P., Los Angeles Dear M.: I don’t guarantee that the following is true, M., but it makes a good story, which is about all you can ask in this wicked world. At one time, supposedly, coat sleeve buttons had an eminently practical function. It seems that Frederick the Great, ruler of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, used to enjoy nothing more than the sight of his troops neatly decked out in uniforms and lined up in rows. Only one thing spoiled the scene: the soldiers insisted on sweating, getting dirty, catching diseases, and bleedin
