Entirely trivial of course, but amusing to me at least.
Now, things might be different elsewhere but around where I come from cuff links are seen as a bit posh. In fact, double cuffs with cuff links are seen as rather posh.
In a way that a sports jacket and an open necked shirt are not seen as posh.
Or, well, that gets a bit more complicated. Stripey collared shirt, unbuttoned, with double cuffs and links, under a sports jacket is exactly Sloaney weekend wear.
And guess who wears double cuffs with links?
That man of the people, Alexis Tsipras.
Yes, it’s entirely trivial. But in the English milieu that opening image of that video would have you thinking…..that’s a posho who’s “rolled his sleeves up” to get down to some hard work.
Perhaps the imagery works different in Greek.
Looks like they could be Thomas Pink links too…..
Wear ’em to work most days, along with tie done up properly. I like the noise they make on the desk when I’m moving my mouse. Other people like that less, but hey.
Certainly, they would have attracted unfavourable comment (yer bloody great woofta etc) in the Warrington-Runcorn in the 70s and 80s.
Its quite hard to roll your sleeves up if you are wearing French cuffs.
Personally I hate them. Cufflinks, ridiculous.
Ridiculous, maybe, but they are also part of a uniform that affords entry to places you may aspire to.
Going by the London Cyp community I was peripheral to, I’d reckon fold back cuffs & links would identify one of the “peasants made good” fraternity. The need to outwardly show success to overcome latent insecurity.
Of course, it’s the identical driver in Brit culture, as well…
It’s the same as the whistle & £150 neck rag in a recent thread.The wearer is trying to impart information through attire. That they need to impart the information shows it’s intrinsicly suspect. The wise viewer acts accordingly.
“That they need to impart the information shows it’s intrinsicly suspect. ”
Depends: imparting to whom. Among your own or to outsiders? ‘I belong’ or ‘I would like to belong’
I go for double cuffs with cufflinks when meeting clients, though I prefer short sleeves so on a normal day in the office will stick with a short-sleeved shirt (one of my old university friends is aghast at the thought that anyone might do so 🙂 ).
I only wear white shirts, though – I think I’m influenced by shirts being historically underwear, made of white linen for ease of washing, so anything else seems somehow wrong to me. Irrational, I know 🙂
Basically, I’m aiming for “reassuringly conventional trustworthy professional” – grey suit, white shirt, plain tie, unremarkable shoes – which seems to work for my clients. After all, the sort of person who wants an exciting tax advisor is not the sort of person I want as a client…
Though I do get a lot of comments about my hat. This confuses me – am I the only person who ever gets bothersome weather about the head region? Or am I just the only one who has the nous to do something about it?
I wear double cuffs and cufflinks without fail at work, plus a tie with a tie-clip. Minimum standard, IMO.
Though I do get a lot of comments about my hat.
The French wear hats a lot. You’d fit in over here.
I don’t understand how people get by without tie-clips either. Flappy ties are so annoying!
@ You’re on the money about hats. I wear one (slaphead, keeps the sun off), to the office and get no end of stares, comments about it.
Double-cuffs and cufflinks for me as well. Never ever novelty cufflinks though.
Pellinor: shoet sleeve shirts are bad enough, but please tell me that you don’t wear a tie with short sleeves?
I met a finance director who insisted on always wearing white shirts that were immaculately pressed with a discreet tie. He said patterned or coloured shirts/ties could potentially annoy a client, so he was willing to tone things down to potentially win business.
Oh, yes, I do the full Dilbert 🙂
I know of one (sales) chap who insists of picking a random brightly-coloured shirt and a random brightly-coloured tie each day. He reckons that in sales, being remembered for anything at all is better than being one of a faceless crowd 🙂
I’m with the FD, when meeting clients.
When I’m only going to be meeting colleagues, I prefer the comfort of short sleeves (and the reduced ironing load). Especially as our offices don’t have aircon, and my particular office is on the top floor, where the hot air gathers, and faces southwest into the afternoon sunshine…
Double cuffs and cuff links with an open neck shirt is simply a fashion. It was once supposed to be ‘edgy’, a ‘deconstruction’ of formal dress. Rather like women who wear formal, high-heeled shoes with jeans. Now, both fashions are conventionally unconventional.
@ GlenDorran
I’m probably letting the side down but much of the time I have to wear single cuffs – just because if I want a shirt to fit I usually don’t get a choice. Last-but-one shirt I got double-cuffs in the “slimfit” but their “ultra-slim-fit” (they should be sued for misrepresentation as it goes over my “spare tyre” – belated middle-aged spread) is only single cuff.
Tim overlooks the fuss about Tsipras sending his son to an expensive fee-paying school.
I always wear white shirts, because I reckon that way the frayed collars and cuffs don’t show as much. Yet, in my line of work, unbeknownst to client, there’s an inverted snobbery about dress: You never replace your wig or gown, no matter how shabby, and frayed shirts display not poor cashflow, but material indifference. On the other hand, there are few things as obviously resplendent as a properly tailored whistle: mark me down as a chancer, Mr in Spain, if you wish, but if I’ve had a battering in the High Court the previous day, then nohing, but nothing, refits me for the fray like donning the woollen armour.
One thing I’ve learned, though: never underestimate a man in a short-sleeved shirt.
Mr Lud. Good suit. Frayed cuffs. You do, indeed, truly have style. A rare thing. For, if one must adhere to a dress convention, the correct response is to make the minimum effort doing so.
I take my hat off to you. (fedora- pale blue)
Yet, in my line of work, unbeknownst to client, there’s an inverted snobbery about dress: You never replace your wig or gown, no matter how shabby, and frayed shirts display not poor cashflow, but material indifference.
Ah, this is a classic British upper class trait: material indifference. Kate Fox wrote in Watching the English how you can visit the country estate of Britain’s aristocracy and find threadbare carpets worth a fortune and a very expensive sofa with a large dog living on it.
Mr in Spain, my titfer is doffed.
Tim N, though I deplore state licensing in anything, I do admire the social mobility my profession has always facilitated; it’s an area where brains and ability will take you to the top of the pile and which, if necessary, teaches the requisite manners along the way. For my part, I wasn’t even privately educated.