Surgeon Cuffs

Surgeon cuffs refer to the highly functional buttonholes that are placed on the cuff of a jacket.

The jacket of a man’s suit has a row of between two and six buttons along each cuff. On most suits these are not functional and indeed the cuff cannot be opened at all; the buttons are there for decorative effect.

On some high-grade and bespoke suit jackets, however, the cuff buttons are functional – the buttons can be unfastened and the cuffs opened up. Their role is still decorative rather than functional, though.

Saville Row, London’s home of bespoke tailoring, was reportedly a base for surgeons before the tailors started to move in during the 19th century; and the story goes that surgeons – who used to operate in their suits – needed to be able to fold back the cuff. Functional suit cuffs are therefore termed ‘surgeon’ cuffs.

These days, suits with surgeon’s cuffs have their last couple of buttons stitched off the centre to enable the sleeves to hang more cleanly even if the buttons are undone. Some would suggest that leaving the bottom one or two buttons unbuttoned can showcase the detail on a jacket and demonstrate your good taste (and the size of your wallet); others might regard this as lacking in good taste.