Buttons
Sir: Alexander Chancellor's pronounce- ment on cuff buttons (Television, 16 November) seems to be a large generalisa- tion from Sir Anthony Eden. The rule surely is (it certainly was when I was a young man) that there should be as many buttons on each cuff of a coat as there are
LETTERS
buttons on the front. A single-breasted coat has three, or sometimes two, buttons on the front, and should have the same number on each cuff. Sir Anthony seems to have preferred the then fashionable double-breasted coat, which has four but- tons on the front — two on each side. He was therefore entirely correct in having four buttons on his cuffs. But I think he would have regarded with disgust a single- breasted coat so bedizened.
A further point, which Mr Chancellor might have touched on, is the requirement that all the button-holes should be real, so that the buttons can if necessary be un- done. The fact that it never is necessary is irrelevant.
J. A. Gere
21 Lamont Road, London SW10
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