Dictionary

Cufflink is a jewelry accessory used in a men’s dress shirt to secure the shirt’s cuffs. Used with a special type of a shirt having a double cuff, also known as “French cuff”, where the cuff has special wholes with no regular buttons on it.

Cufflinks were invented in Europe in the beginning of XVII century, where the sleeves were initially simply tied with laces or ribbons. During the reign of the King of France, Louis XIV, it became fashionable to use a pair of identical glass buttons connected by a short chain, as the most close analogue of cufflinks of those times.

These days the following types of cufflinks are mostly in use:

• asymmetrical (front side part with a stone or a decoration and the reverse side with a clasp);
• symmetrical (both halves are decorated the identical way).

Cufflinks can also differ by the hitch mechanisms:

• rotating pin
• chains
• fasteners
• hard hitches.