Most people get dressed every morning without giving a second thought to the tiny details built into their clothes. One of those details is something we’ve all seen thousands of times yet rarely question: women’s shirts button left over right, while men’s button right over left. It’s such a familiar feature that it blends into the background of daily life — but the story behind why it exists reaches back centuries and reveals how fashion quietly absorbed the routines, expectations, and social structures of the past.
This design difference didn’t appear by accident. It grew out of how early clothing was worn, who was dressing whom, and what daily life actually required. For women, especially those in the upper classes during the 18th and 19th centuries, getting dressed was often a complicated operation. Wealthy women wore layer upon layer of clothing: corsets tightened at the back, bodices with hooks or buttons, petticoats, heavy skirts, and gowns that fastened in multiple places. These outfits weren’t designed for independence — they were made with the assumption that someone else, usually a maid, would be helping.
Because most people are right-handed, dressmakers placed buttons on the left side of women’s garments so maids could fasten them more easily. To a servant standing in front of the woman, it meant cleaner, faster work — a small adjustment that made sense in a world where daily dressing was a team effort. Even as women’s clothing eventually became simpler and more practical, the tradition never fully faded. Left-side buttoning became part of the “look” of women’s fashion, a quiet signal of refinement that stuck around long after the original reason disappeared…
