quick poll: do you button your SB?

[pchong]

I always do, even when seated. I feel sloppy if I don't have it buttoned. What do you gentlemen do?

[iammatt]

Mine are not cut to be buttonned while seated. I suppose that I could, but I would probably pop a button.

I generally keep mine buttoned while standing, but not always.

[Jannis]

I also keep mine always buttoned while standing but not when seating although the cut does allow that.

[Costi]

Never when seated. I have a general reflex of unbuttoning the coat as I sit, respectively button it as I stand up). Always when wearing a bowtie (I wonder why). Always when in a public place (restaurant etc.) or outside. Rarely when in a familiar indoor place with known people (office, home, visit to friends). Always in front of strangers (I could be directly psychanalized from this behaviour: buttoning the coat may be interpreted as a refined version of the primeval reflex to protect the soft ventral area fom "attack", or what we feel might invade our private space).

[Guest]

being italian my coats are constantly buttoned and unbuttoned, buttoned and unbuttoned. Even DB (I Know many wouldn't like).

But strange to say, when I'm seated they are almost always buttoned.

[andrei67]

Quite rarely when seated and often removing the coat altogether...

[aportnoy]

Never when seated.

[DFR]

Rarely - indeed only when outside and there is a gale blowing.

Fastening the coat may give the wearer feelings of elegance, it actually conveys to anyone else that he is 'closed' to contact and thinks himself aloof from those he is with.

[BenedictSpinola]

(I could be directly psychanalized from this behaviour: buttoning the coat may be interpreted as a refined version of the primeval reflex to protect the soft ventral area fom "attack", or what we feel might invade our private space).

What then, does this say about the Neapolitan penchant for open front quarters?

[alden]

Dear Benmund Freudola

That is quite enough outta you!

I mean think about high button points and open quarters. Most ladies of any upbringing would simply faint, Scarlet.

Cheers

[Jackson]

Always when standing, rarely when seated.

[luk-cha]

standing yes - seated no!

[Teacher]

Buttonned when standing, generally not when seated.

[Costi]

What then, does this say about the Neapolitan penchant for open front quarters?

Yours is a rhetorical question Beyond the aesthetics involved in such a sartorial choice, no doubt the Neapolitans do show a particular propensity towards social contact and interchange (including anything Mr. Alden may have humorously hinted to). I think buttoning the coat (except when one is simply cold) does set a psychological barrier: DFR's interpretation shows the reclusive aspect, while the other is a defensive attitude.
There is also, of course, the purely functional argument of buttoning so the coat doesn't gap when we move our arms (as we stand still, a well-cut SB coat should hang the same buttoned or not), which has no psychological implications (has it...? ).

[TimMureau]

Sometimes I do it...
But regularly I don't do it, and when I wear a navy jacket and a grey trousers I always don't do it.