The London Lounge

I've recently bought an evening -dress shirt with pleats. I've always previously had Marcella fronts but I felt like a change.
Here's my question. Should I fasten up the front with the buttons or use studs ? The shirt has provision for both ( if you remove the buttons there's a button hole next to where each button was). Since historically, studs were used to fasten up the front of the shirt because the Marcella front was too stiff to allow a button to be pushed through the stiff fabric, there seems no justification to use studs on what is essentially a soft fronted shirt. I fear using studs " just because there's a hole there" is like putting a cufflink through a single cuff, which to my mind is woefully ill-advised , to put it mildly.

Black tie is a wonderful fantasy where trousers manage to get by with nothing in the pockets, silk sashes magically disappear under the skirt of the jacket, shirts are pleated all over, and every one of the buttons is made from precious or semi-precious material. Wear studs without guilt.

Now, if they're nice buttons and you don't need to be conspicuously "dressed up," or you're travelling light, then go ahead and use what the maker gave you as a stopgap. It will look clean enough that you shouldn't worry too much.

Concordia wrote: Wear studs without guilt.

Oh, the same question appears twice in the same thread... Nice to see that others share the pragmatic approach

Cheers, David