Pockets and the Bottom Button

[preobrazhensky]

Really just wondering how you all feel about the alignment of the lower button and pocket height. I imagine those that consider this alignment important will have stronger feelings on the subject. Does your preference change between SB and DB, and also between particular button configuration?
I am ambivalent. On the whole I marginally prefer the less contrived 'off the line' look, particularly on a DB because the pocket line can become too emphatic with two buttons reinforcing it. But for this to work I need the buttons a significant distance below the line, so as not to appear a sloppy mistake, and so that the pocket height makes a satisfying vertical division of the rectangle formed between the four buttons.
I can convince myself that the 'on the line' stance is too neat, too fussy, and a little less sophisticated. But then occassionally I see such a jacket, and am struck by its very simplicity.
As far as SB jackets go, I have no fixed view, but I suppose I would expect to see everything aligned on a conventional 3-button.

What are your thoughts, preferences, dogmas?

[manton]

I prefer them to line up. Tailors resist this, I have found, often because they have a cutting formula, based on a person's height, which dictates how far up from the bottom of the coat the pocket should be. On me, that typically means that they would prefer to place the pocket higher than the bottom button. However, since I also prefer a higher buttoning point, I have generally been able to convince tailors to make pocket and button line up and still not disturb their formula.

Pockets lower than the button can look odd; the only exception (for me) is on shorter guys, in which case htis can help to stretch out their silhouette.

I think that besom pockets really must line up with the bottom button, otherwise they look "lost." Flapped pockets can more easily hold their own.

[preobrazhensky]

I have found exactly as you have regarding cutting formula. Congratulations on getting a tailor to raise the buttons, I tried that last time; they were initially marked where I wanted them, but they slowly sunk as the fittings progressed and were eventually cut in his default position! In that instance I now think that was the best solution, but it is a difficult struggle.
It does raise an interesting point though, as if you insist on everything lining up, surely there is an inherent compromise? Either the pocket, or the button, will have to suffer a small sacrifice regarding its own ideal placement. If the fastened button is on the waist, yet you require (or your tailor believes you require) a highish pocket line, then the lower button(s) will be squashed close, leaving large, unarticulated areas of the jacket, and a weird concentration of interest around the middle. I am expressing this poorly, but I am trying to ascertain how you resolve this problem, and whether indeed it does involve any compromise for you at all?