Cufflinks come and cufflinks go. They have been in and out of fashion for the last hundred and fifty years or more. Some might say that they are out of fashion at the moment as the nation seems to be wearing more relaxed clothing when going to work, to the extent that some men wear jeans and a T-shirt these days.
However, there are still many men who like to dress smartly in a suit and tie with a formal shirt and cufflinks. You have only to look online to see that there are thousands upon thousands of different designs of cufflinks for sale, and they can vary from £10 or £15 a pair up to as much as £15,000 in some instances. There would not be that many manufacturers if nobody was buying them.
Cufflinks have a long history, going back as far as the early 15th century. In those days they were only for the wealthy, and sported jewellery and gemstones. The bigger the gemstones, the greater was your status.
However, come the industrial revolution and that all changed because cufflinks began to be cheap and soon any man could, and did, wear them. Even so, they have gone out of fashion, come back in fashion, gone out again, over periods of several years. In the 1920’s the iconic fashion designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel included cufflinks in her collection and that caught the eye of many a man. Then they went out of fashion until the 1950’s when larger versions were produced that stood out more, and then along came Mick Jagger who popularised lavish shirts and the cufflinks that came with them.
In the 70’s the Woodstock fashion was for trendy and colourful shirts with button cuffs, so cufflinks weren’t needed, but then they came swinging back again in the 80’s and have remained pretty popular up to this day.
At Wimbledon Cufflink Company we produce a huge range of different styles of cufflinks, one of the most popular being our Heritage Cufflinks. It is easy to see why, since they tell the story of who a man is and where he came from.
Three Lions In Gold And Red
For instance, our British Heritage Cufflinks are in several different designs such as the Three Lions cufflink which features, as you might guess, three lions in gold on a brilliant red background. The three lions were adopted as a coat of arms as far back as the late 12th century, although that was before cufflinks were invented. But they were then taken up by various monarchs including Richard the Lionheart, Henry V, and Queen Elizabeth I. Today, of course, they feature as the emblem of the English Football Team.
We also produce the English Rose in gold on a blue background. This was adopted by Henry VIII as a symbol of peace, as it merged the white rose of Yorkshire and the red rose of Lancashire. This one is now used as an emblem by the English national rugby team.
Another English symbol that we produce is the English Oak. In gold on a dark green background, this salutes the hollow oak tree in which Charles II hid from the Roundheads after losing the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Many of our customers also love our Crown cufflinks which are similar to the Three Lions in that we have designed the Crown in gold on red. Wearing a crown makes you stand out as someone of importance, but it also professes a certain dignity and loyalty to your country.
We haven’t forgotten Wales when it comes to national symbols. Our Welsh Dragon became a Royal Badge in 1953 and was added to the arms of Cardiff as the capital of Wales. The dragon goes way back in time and was on the battle standard of no less a man the King Arthur. Another Welsh symbol that goes back a long way is the Celtic Shield which dates from the Iron Age.
For the Irish we have the Shamrock which we produce in blue and gold or green and gold and which has been used as an emblem of the country since the 18th century. We also produce heritage cufflinks for Scotland, France, the US, Canada, and even a Roman design featuring SPQR.