Show me your cufflinks and I tell you who you are

Only bus drivers and 50 year old virgins wear formal shirts with short sleeves. So lets not talk about them. If  you are a man wearing a long sleeve formal shirt the choice is between doing your cuffs up with a button, probably made of plastic, or using  cuff links.

Using cuff links says all sorts of things about you, not least that you either don’t live by yourself or that you have a level of dexterity that suggests that you are wasted in your solitary life.

Let’s not dwell on people who think a plastic button is sufficient.  And lets not think too much about people who think it is in any way acceptable to wear cuff links with single cuffs. Lets just focus on cuff links.

And the truth is, they can be ghastly. They can also be tiny flashes of understated glamour.

Enough words, lets see some lovely, and some horrid, cuff links.

Ok, they made us momentarily nostalgic for Mario Cart on the NES and N64 but no. Just say no.

And again. No. If we need to tell you why you probably shouldn’t be reading a blog about design.

These Star Trek cuff links may almost look acceptable. But before you are tempted, here are some men who might be keen on wearing them -

OK. so what do we like? Well they need to be glamorous but not ostentatious. And your cuffs are no more a place for humour than your socks.

This camera phone picture was sent to us by Architectural Photographer Andy Marshall.  The cuff links are by Wiener Werkstaette and they fit the bill nicely. Instantly reminiscent of a more glamorous age, of smoking lounges, billiards and brandy. Andy knows style.

These are from Wright and Teague, who one day will get a blog of their own, and come in silver, gold or platinum. And if you want to be a little more understated -

Also from Wright and Teague, these are, basically, litle drops of metal which just happen to be gold, silver or platinum. Discrete, glamorous, masculine and very grown up. And its my birthday soon.

Finally, I did mention earlier that I was talking about men and their formal shirts. But what about a woman dressed in formal shirt with cuff links? Is your heart still beating at the same speed as it was before you looked at this picture?