Many modern men believe that cufflinks are a thing of the past, and in one sense they are, because they have been around since the 17th century. In fact, the forerunner to the modern cufflink goes back to the early 1500s when men started to wear shirts with ruffled wristbands tied together with strings.
However, by the time French King Louis X1V came to the throne in 1643 the strings were overtaken by decorative glass buttons that were joined together by a small chain, and indeed these “sleeve buttons” as they were known are still in style today. However, today we don’t have a lot of glass cufflinks because the production techniques evolved, and men began to wear cufflinks with jewels attached at each end as a way of showing their status and how wealthy they were.
Fast forward 300 years and there are now thousands upon thousands of different designs of cufflinks. In fact, if you Google something such as “buy cufflinks” you get over 80 million results.
Cufflinks Can Still Define Your Status
Cufflinks can still be worn that define your status as you can get them in a wide choice of different materials and patterns. Metals available include gold, silver, platinum, titanium, copper, bronze, and stainless steel, and you can also get silk knot cufflinks, enamel and glass, leather, wood, mother of pearl, and of course a range of different gemstones. You can also spend whatever you like, as you can buy cufflinks for as little as £!0 a pair and, equally, you can find designer cufflinks that run into the thousands.
In fact, you will find that many men in positions of importance will wear cufflinks. Think of directors of large companies, your MP (if, indeed he is a man), your doctor, your accountant, and many more, and you will see that there are a lot more cufflinks around today than you might think.
In fact, if you want to get on in your career, you need to go to the office wearing a smart suit and a pair of cufflinks. They need to be smart cufflinks, too. But they don’t need to be designer cufflinks. However, you do need to wear cufflinks of a formal design. There are lots of cufflinks out there that are “jokey” designs such as a skull, a batman design, a motorbike, and many more. These are not the sort of thing to wear to the office. You need something that is more restrained and formal.