WHY do womens clothes button/zip backwards?

[Kali]

"what are you wearing>" thread made me think about these pants I mail-ordered from a women's catalog. They even called them "boyfriend" pants. They are wonderful jeans style olive cotton - brushed and super soft. REALLY comfortable - BUT! the damn zipper opens on the left. WTF????? I do not understand.

Now mostly I wear regular mens jeans for work - Dickie's or carhardts or levis. So, these pants (bought for traveling) feel so strange to take on or off. What is the origin of this and is there any way we can form a grass roots campaign to standardize clothes openings? Who is with me?

[Shakespeare]

1. To me, men's clothes button/zip backwards.

It'd be really, really weird to suddenly have my clothes all fastening on the other side. :shrug:

[sakabatou]

2. Because originally

A maid, or helper would button/zip it up for you. It's easier for them, not you.

[Richard Steele]

3. Yup, that's why. nm

[Kali]

8. Didn't men have helpers too?

Seems it would still be the same for both.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Not really, no...

and back in the times when the standard was set, gentlemen customarily went armed; a right-handed man wears a sword on his left hip, and a coat that buttons over from left to right doesn't get in the way as much.

[LeftyMom]

4. So the cleaners know which clothes to overcharge for?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

5. snap!

:D

[Kali]

6. Is that right?

Revealing even more of my hick-ness - I am not a big patron of the local dry cleaning service. I know womens clothes cost more and are way less durable - do they cost more to dry clean to? Figures.

[LeftyMom]

7. Usually.

Ask why and you'll usually get some nonsense about more delicate fabrics or decorative trims or something, even when the shirt's plain as could be.

[Kali]

9. Well I suppose it makes SOME sense

considering how craptastically womens clothes are usually constructed.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. The presses used by dry cleaners were designed with men's clothes in mind.

The dry cleaning portion is not the issue. The pressing is done wholly by machine for men's clothes but must have human intervention (if not hand pressing) for some women's clothes. It's an artifact from a time when most dry cleaning was men's business wear. There is no compelling reason to have this disparity any more. The modern machines can accommodate women's clothes with similar features as men's yet some dry cleaners continue the practice of charging more for women's clothes regardless of adornment. That's why some states have passed gender-neutral pricing laws.

[Kali]

16. interesting

I sure didn't know that. I think the last thin I had cleaned was a leather bomber jacket I found at a thrift store for onw of my son's birtheday - must have been at least 8 or 10 years ago. I obviously don't get out much! :rofl:

[Gormy Cuss]

18. I avoid dry cleaners as much as possible.

I have a little bit of a problem with sexist pricing policies. Okay, it's a BIG problem. :blush:
My info comes from a friend who owned a commercial laundry and from my mother who worked for dry cleaners. Before I move to CA I lived in MA where gender-neutral pricing is the law.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. Maybe the male zippers and buttons are backwards.

:shrug:

[Kali]

15. well males often are

:thumbsup: heh

still, I prefer the "male" version. If these pants werent so comfy I think I would return them just because the zipper is weird.

[Katherine Brengle]

19. I like men's pants, they look like crap on me but oh they feel so good lol.

Backwards or not :D.

[Generic Brad]

12. Male designers get their jollies out of making women contort

Just a theory of mine....

[Left Is Write]

14. It's the men's clothes that are backwards, not the women's.

I'm 40 years old - you expect me to learn a whole new way to button NOW?

[Kali]

17. ...

Hey a few more years and we can take it easy by joining the all-elastic and velcro crowd! :rofl:

[chknltl]

20. Because they are manufactured on differing planets

Venus and Mars of course.













(sorry resistance WAS futile again) :hide: