My Favorite Suit Jacket

The case of the missing button

A few years ago, I noticed something peculiar on a man's blazer. It was a normal blazer, a nice shade of brown, typical sizing, nothing out of the ordinary except one thing. On the left lapel, there looked to be a buttonhole, yet I couldn't understand why for the life of me. There was no button to be found!

Now, most jackets have two buttons underneath the lapels, mostly for show. The first one can be used, but under no circumstances should you button the second. So, with most jackets only using one button, I remained perplexed as to why there was space for a third button when two seemed to suffice.

It wasn't until I was browsing suits in a shop months later that I realized what was happening! It turns out that the buttonhole that I thought was superfluous actually had a corresponding button. It was a third hidden button under the roll of the jacket's lapel. Naturally, upon discovery, this sent me to the moon, as I loved this detail and vowed at that moment to never wear another jacket again.

It turns out this jacket style has a name: “Three-button roll into two,” and it came out of necessity in the early 1900s. Most jackets during that time were three-button, which, when all buttoned up as was more common then, looked quite formal and seemed a little dated. Folks who liked their jackets but wanted to have one less button to be in vogue but didn't want to pay for a new two-button jacket would start folding and, I presume, ironing their lapel down to hide the third button.

This level of ingenuity deserved a Nobel Prize. Because it became so popular, Brooks Brothers started producing jackets like this—except slightly better, because their proportions were optimized for the roll. And keep in mind that at the time, Brooks Brothers was the biggest name in American fashion.

L to R: The Armoury/Ring Jacket, J.Mueser, Thom Browne

Above, you’ll see a few examples. I love the asymmetricity of it, and I think it adds some depth to the otherwise structured proceedings. It's undoubtedly slightly less formal in the grand scheme of things; however, in today's day and age, any blazer worn would be considered most people would be deemed formal, irrespective of the number of buttons.

More recently, it has become a staple of many top brands' suits—from Thom Browne to Sid Mashburn—and you'll see these in more places than you think. Artist of the moment Michael McGregor, who I am a big fan of, had an opening of his new show here at a gallery in New York City last weekend, and guess what he was wearing? A three-roll two, naturally.

As readers know, I love the subtitles of suiting, and I love that the third button isn’t completely obvious. It's one of those "Do you think you know everything about this at first glance? Look again! Look closer! There's more!" moments that draw you in and hook you. Only a tiny percentage will notice, and a smaller percentage will even ask about it, but I guarantee you that once they learn about it, they’ll never forget it.

The third button is a button that will never be used or maybe even seen, but I think that's what makes it so special.