If it is traditionally designed for men, they will generally be on the wearer's right. If it is traditionally designed for women, they will generally be on the wearer's left.
That tiny difference has generated numerous explanations over the years.
Some stories connect women's clothing with servants helping wealthy women dress. Others connect men's clothing with swords and right-handed weapon use. Still others point toward broader developments in tailoring, social customs, manufacturing, and fashion.
The safest historical conclusion is that there is no universally accepted single explanation that fully accounts for the modern convention.
That may sound less exciting than a simple story, but it is actually more interesting.
Fashion traditions rarely emerge from one isolated decision. They evolve through layers of history.
A particular design may begin for practical reasons, become associated with a social group, get copied by manufacturers, and eventually survive simply because everyone expects it to look that way.
Buttons are a perfect example.
Today, the difference has little practical importance for most people. Whether a shirt closes from the left or right does not determine how well the garment keeps someone warm, how comfortable it is, or how long it lasts.
Yet people immediately recognize the traditional distinction because it has been repeated across generations of clothing.
And there is one more important point: these conventions are not universal across every culture, historical period, or modern fashion brand. Contemporary designers frequently experiment with traditional construction, and some garments are intentionally made without following conventional men's or women's button placement.
So the next time someone asks why men's buttons are on the right and women's buttons are on the left, there isn't necessarily one perfect sentence that solves the mystery.
The better answer is that the tradition has several proposed historical explanations, but its exact origin remains uncertain.
What seems like an insignificant detail is actually a small reminder that everyday objects often carry traces of history—sometimes even when we have completely forgotten where those traditions came from.
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