History of Cuff Links

Have you ever found yourself buttoning up a long sleeve dress shirt and wondering why cuff links are still around? Perhaps you have wondered if there is still a call for such decorative items as the diamond cuff link. If, however, you are using cuff links on your shirts, another question may spring to mind. In such a case as this, you may have found yourself pondering on where the cuff link actually comes from. Well, perhaps such a query has never entered into your mind, yet just the same, like all fashions, cuff links do have a beginning - a time frame in which they came into being. From the continued use of cuff links, adorned with diamonds and other precious jewels, in haut couture, it looks like their history is still being written.

Up until the 17th century, anyone wearing a long shirt with cuffs utilized string, ribbons or some other such item to hold the cuffs together. As is the want among the wealthy, many of them had a tremendous desire to distinguish themselves. As a further means to the end of fashionable distinction, many of the upper class began to utilize the finest silk to hold their cuffs in place. As the 17th century arrived and progressed, those on the cutting edge of fashion, often referred to as dandies, began to look for something a little more eye-catching than simple ribbons.

The first incarnation of the cuff link, prior to the use of diamonds and other accouterments to adorn them, was the use of gold or silver chains threaded through the cuffs. This adaptation of the dandies and the extremely wealthy was not an immediate sensation in regards to the buying public, however. For one thing, the chains were usually made of actual gold or silver, and had to be manufactured by hand by skilled craftspeople. This meant that most of the population was economically cut off from utilizing such cuff link devices. For another thing, cuff links were considered by many to be a bit too ostentatious. Whether this feeling of was a result of sour grapes, or an honest desire for a simpler means of linking ones' cuffs, we cannot know.

By the 19th century, however, modern mechanical advances brought about machinery that could mass-produce cuff links that are much closer to the modern cuff link design than the original use of gold and silver chains. Not only were these new designs less expensive, but they also allowed greater inclusion of such things as diamonds and other jewels. Suddenly the cuff link became de rigueur amongst well-dressed men. The popularity of cuff link waned a bit with the mid-20th century introduction of buttons on dress shirts, but the use of cuff links has discovered a new revival, as men throughout the world have embraced the style and grace afforded by the cuff link.


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