themightynyunyi replied to your post “Hi Vincent. I’ve been sewing my first 18th century men’s shirt, and...”
regarding the why, probably the same reason they didn't sew the buttons on the coats or waitscoats, they couldn't afford it to have separate buttons for all of their shirts
themightynyunyi replied:
(suddenly I'm not sure if the not sewing buttons practice was a thing in the western parts of europe, I got the idea from hungarian noble's fashion of the same period)
I don’t think the cost of extra shirt buttons would have been much of an issue if they were the same kind as the ones on the collar - just solid masses made of linen thread, or flatter ones made of linen thread around a little metal or bone ring.
I do seem to recall seeing a picture of a box of jeweled coat or waistcoat buttons somewhere that weren’t permanently sewed to the garments but I can’t remember where or when it was from, and I know detachable waistcoat buttons were pretty common in the Edwardian era but that’s way later.
All the non-shirt stuff I’ve seen has the buttons sewn on, and most often they’re made of little blanks covered in cloth or thread, metal and jewelled ones are less common.
I suppose it could be to make laundering easier, like @lebedame-wegelagerin suggested, but I’m not sure why they’d have buttons on the shirt collar if that was the case. Although, I think they did have completely button-less shirts a bit earlier. I’ve not looked into it much, but I notice that a lot of early 18th century and especially late 17th century shirts tie shut with a ribbon at the collar, and I think... I think Elizabethan shirt collars closed with little cords and tassels?
Maybe it just took them a while to progress from buttons sewn on collars to buttons sewn on cuffs.
