hirt Studs: Definitive Guide (Tuxedo Jewelry & Accessories)

shirt studs are an essential item for correct evening dress, but they can be challenging to get right. So, today, we’ll look at the different types, materials, and styles of shirt studs out there to essentially give you a complete overview and teach you how to wear them properly.

What is a Shirt Stud?
A shirt stud is a piece of men’s jewelry that is essentially used in place of buttons on the placket of a shirt. These studs are often made in precious metals, and some can be very decorative, even featuring things like precious gemstones or detailed engraving.

These studs are used to do up shirt fronts for formal events and are passed through two buttonholes, one on each side of the shirt’s placket.

hese days, shirt studs are basically confined to the evening dress codes: Black Tie and White Tie. But to get a complete overview, we have to look back in time a bit at the history of shirt studs.

The History of Shirt Studs
Around the 1820s, men started removing the collars of their shirts for easier laundering, as we’ve already discussed in another guide. This led to the invention of shirts with detachable collars. And, most often, these collars were heavily starched to give a crisp and clean appearance.

Some men felt that having a crisp starched collar sitting atop a soft wrinkled shirt was a bit incongruous. So, toward the latter half of the 19th century, men also started starching their shirt fronts. The practice wasn’t just confined to white shirts but rather to shirts in all different kinds of colors and patterns.

Also, in the mid-19th century, men’s shirts only had what we would now call a “half placket,” meaning that they only opened about halfway down the front of the shirt. The coat-style shirt, with which we’re now familiar, wouldn’t come along for another few decades. Because of this short placket length, studs were usually sold in groups of twos or threes.

Today, however, you’ll typically find them in groupings of three or four to accommodate longer shirt plackets as well as the lower rise of modern waistlines.

Around the turn of the 20th century, some dress shirts even opened from the back to present a pristine starched front, such as the one you can see Fred Astaire wearing. These styles typically only used one single dress stud in the center of the shirt front.

In the 19th century, then, shirt studs were used as a part of daywear, in addition to evening wear, but that, of course, changed throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Where daywear has evolved, evening wear became a regulated and set series of two dress codes.

By the way, if you’re curious about the different kinds of Black Tie and White Tie shirts, as well as a variety of other topics relating to those dress codes, you can take a look at our comprehensive Black Tie guide.

Except for the fly-front shirt, then, studs aren’t optional. You’re not going to want to wear a shirt with regular buttons as part of the Black Tie or White Tie dress codes. So, you will need a set of studs and, preferably, a set for each dress code.

What Makes A Perfect Shirt Stud?
We would argue that the ideal dress stud is both decorative and functional and, overall, is something elegant that will help you look your best.

The idea behind the regulated dress codes of Black Tie and White Tie is that most men will look broadly similar to each other while at these functions. However, you can still express your identity in subtle ways, like through the use of accessories, such as shirt studs.

Of course, your studs shouldn’t be loud and garish or used as an opportunity to flaunt your wealth. Instead, they should be subtle, elegant, and complementary to your overall look. They’ll also need to be somewhat luxurious, hard-wearing, timeless, and practical.

They should be easy to use, easy to remove and be something that won’t come undone when you are breaking out your best dance moves. After all, nobody wants to scurry along the floor in their recently pressed tuxedo, looking for their missing shirt stud with chest bare for all to see.