The Case for Bringing Back Sleeve Garters
Like most people who spend extensive hours traveling on trains and planes during the holiday season, I plug into a good show on my iPad and binge watch the hell out of it. This holiday season, that show was Rivals on Disney+, a cutthroat, scandal-filled drama based on the Jilly Cooper novel of the same name. The show is set during one of fashion’s finest decades—the 1980s—so naturally, the menswear moments are pretty damn great. But even in a sea of tweed suits, suspenders, and frilly taffeta dresses, there was one ‘80s accoutrement that caught my eye more than any other: the sleeve garter.
Folks, consider this my official plea to bring back sleeve garters. Not so much for function, but for fashion. If you’re a little bit unfamiliar with sleeve garters, the way I was before Rivals had me Googling “david tennant rivals cuff on arm,” here’s a quick brief: Sleeve garters are adjustable bands, usually elastic or metal, originally meant to allow men to customize the length of their shirt sleeves without any actual cutting or sewing. They’re worn just below the bicep and above the elbow—the idea is to adjust your sleeves by pulling the shirt fabric up or down through the garters.
Sleeve garters originated in the 19th century, but were most popular for men between the 1920s and 1990s; if they look familiar, you’ve probably seen them many a-time on Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, if not on Tennant’s Tony Baddingham in nearly every scene of Rivals.
Pretty much all throughout the 20th century, if you were a man wearing a dress shirt that wasn’t custom-tailored, you were wearing sleeve garters. Some shirts were even made with extra-long sleeves with the assumption that you’d be wearing sleeve garters anyway, and therefore would be able to create your perfect fit.
Nowadays, of course, we don’t always need sleeve garters; most of the time, we’re buying dress shirts with our sleeve lengths accounted for, or having them tailored or specially made. But just because we don’t need them doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have them. I certainly want them back. (And if you've got a great shirt that happens to fit perfectly except for some too-long sleeves? You should want them back, too.)
Wearing sleeve garters is a lot like wearing sunglasses at night; you probably aren’t doing it for the sake of practicality, but it sure does look cool as hell. It makes your suited look, sans jacket, feel more complete and better accessorised; with a tie, tie pin, and even suspenders, sleeve garters tie everything together. (They also draw the eyes to your biceps—a win!).
We may not need to keep our sleeves above our palms with sleeve garters now, but they still look damn cool with a buttoned-up shirt. Even guys like David Beckham see the aesthetic appeal; at wife Victoria Beckham’s birthday party last year, David was photographed in a white tuxedo shirt, bow tie, and suspenders, with gold sleeve garters just above his elbows.
Honestly, a statement accessory never hurt an outfit—especially with a suit, with which you might find yourself limited in styling at times. There’s no shortage of new ones to be found for great prices on Amazon, and you can snag some authentic vintage styles on Etsy, too. Consider this your sign to try something new this year, so long as that “something new” is, in fact, something old.
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