Gauntlet Buttons
There is a small button on the sleeve of a dress shirt just to the north of the cuff. For sartorial reference, that portion of the shirt is called the gauntlet. Hence, the button itself is aptly termed a gauntlet button. Spend any amount of time around men (or women) dressed for their business casual days and you’ll have the opportunity to acquaint yourself with this fashion detail. As with many functionally-limited components of today’s more structured attire, the gauntlet button was originally born out of utility and civility and has lingered.
However it arrived on your well-dressed forearm, I encourage you to button it. No, it’s not because I have an obsessive disorder…though it does bug me to see them unbuttoned.
A properly-buttoned gauntlet button evidences an attention to detail. Both literally and figuratively.
In the literal sense, it shows that you attend to your details. You are aware of the picture you present to the world. This picture is an aspect of your personal brand. Your appearance is a large part of your first impression. In the past, I’ve had to coach a very talented employee on her clothing choices. Wrinkled, ill-fitting clothes were not consistent with her excellent performance. Rational or not, people frequently equate our appearance with our proficiency.
This brings us to the figurative attention to detail. No matter how you look at it, the gauntlet button is only a detail of the shirt. It is a chorus member, not the leading lady. If you had to draw a picture of a shirt in the game of Pictionary, the gauntlet button would most likely not make your sketch. So, the fact that you take the time to make sure it is attended to appropriately shows that you care about details in general. You address them when you are considering a larger whole. This message is conveyed without words to those around you.
At the end of the day, you can only influence, not control, what other people think about you–but you can control what your sleeves are saying about you.
