Also in this issue:

• Drinks
  E. Guigal La Landonne 1999
• Good Life Guide
  Vespa Granturismo
• Good Life Guide
  Jumby Bay Resort
• Good Life Guide
  Plasmacluster Air Purifier
• Good Life Guide
  Girard-Perregaux Worldwide Time Control
• More from this Issue

Fashion: Links to History

Vintage cuff links captivate collectors with romance and functionality

Bill Strubbe
From the Print Edition:
Andy Garcia, Mar/April 2004

As with most popular fashion trends, comebacks are inevitable. Jeanloz asserts, “If you wear to an event a pair of treasured cuff links, whether they’re high-end or not, you will feel special. Granted, you’ll also feel different by wearing an Armani suit or driving a Ferrari, but the difference is that with a $50 pair of links, you can capture a semblance of that feeling.”

Menswear designer and author Alan Flusser ventures so far as to say in his book Style and the Man that some fashion historians mark the decline in men’s style from the point at which ready-made buttoned cuffs replaced cuff-linked ones. “No form of shirtsleeve closure dresses a man’s hand better than a well-fitted French cuff punctuated by the subtle glamour of its buttonhole-covering link.” With a hint of snobbery, he concludes that “wearing a set that clips on one side not only exposes its superstructure, but suggests you could only afford to pay for the gold or gemstone on the outside.”

 “This business of casual dress in the workplace is begging for some definition,” adds Klompus. “There’s a trend toward more structure in office dress code. Rings and watches are the only opportunity for men to wear jewelry at work. Ties, although personal, still fall short of cuff links in reflecting the wearer’s personality.”

Rifkin, the cuff link designer, contends, “Man is the forgotten animal where jewelry is concerned. Cuff links are the only piece of jewelry a man can wear and be elegantly outrageous and still be in good taste. I think of my unique cuff links, like all good jewelry, as gifts to Mother Earth. Artwork, fine jewelry and fine cuff links will long outlive their long succession of owners.”

Freelance writer Bill Strubbe owns exactly one pair of cuff links, but no French cuff shirt with which to wear them. All cuff links shown are from the collection of David Hrobowski.

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