4 Ways To Wear Cufflinks With Any Buttoned Shirt

It may have seemed impossible in the past, but modern innovation in men’s style has grown in leaps and bounds. So, can you wear cufflinks with any shirt? 

It’s possible to wear cufflinks with any shirt, even ones with regular barrel cuffs, by tailoring them into “convertible cuffs”. Alternatively, cuff adapters and button-cover cufflinks can be used to allow you to wear cufflinks with regular shirts that don’t have French cuffs. 

There you have it. You’ve definitely got options. Gone are the days where you need French cuffs to wear a pair of cufflinks. 

That’s the short answer, but let’s go through four different ways in which you can do it in a little more detail. 

4 Ways To Wear Cufflinks With Any Shirt (No French Cuffs)

There’s a good chance that at least one of these options will work for you. 

1. Convertible Cuff Dress Shirt

This method assumes you haven’t already got a regular shirt you want to wear cufflinks with. If you do, check out the other methods instead. 

But getting yourself a “convertible cuff” dress shirt is the ideal solution for people who want two different options with the same shirt: 

1. Wearing it as a regular, buttoned, barrel cuff shirt
2. Wearing cufflinks when they feel like it

The concept may sound strange.

After all, it’s difficult to pass cufflinks through a regular barrel cuff due to the space that the button occupies. It’s not really possible. 

But the beauty of a convertible cuff shirt is that you’ve got an extra buttonhole right next to the button. 

Here’s an example of a convertible cuff dress shirt on Amazon as an example: 

So, you’ve essentially got two holes on either side of the cuff (just like a French cuff), but you’ve also got a button next to one of them. 

This will allow you to use the button when you feel like it. 

But it also allows you to pass a cufflink through the two buttonholes when you want to as well. 

This type of versatility is great. 

You can use the button when you can’t be bothered to put on a pair of cufflinks. This is ideal for semi-formal environments such as the workplace. 

But when you feel like dressing things up, you can wear the same shirt with a pair of cufflinks without needing to buy an expensive shirt with French cuffs. 

2. Get It Tailored

If you’ve already got a regular, buttoned shirt that doesn’t have a convertible cuff and you want to wear cufflinks with it, you could get it tailored. 

The tailor would need to essentially turn it into a convertible cuff. 

Usually, this would mean adding another buttonhole or slit right next to the button. 

This gives you two buttonholes instead of one, allowing you to pass the cufflink through. 

It’ll essentially work the same way as a convertible cuff dress shirt I described in the previous section. 

The benefit of this is that you get to wear cufflinks with a regular, non-French cuff shirt that you already own and love. 

In addition, getting this simple amendment done by a tailor is often cheaper than having to buy a whole new convertible cuff dress shirt. 

The difficulty can sometimes be properly describing to the tailor what you actually want to be done. 

You could show them the shirt I linked to earlier and ask them to turn the cuff into something similar. 

Usually, they’ll then know exactly what to do. 

3. Cuff Adapters

Cuff adapters are tabs, usually made of plastic, that fit over the button of the shirt cuff. 

They contain a slot through which the cufflink can be passed, easily allowing you to wear cufflinks with practically any barrel cuffed shirt you own. 

Here’s an example of a pair of cuff adapters you can check out on Amazon: 

It’s yet another simple and cheap way to avoid having to even own a shirt with French cuffs. 

The great thing about cuff adapters is that they allow you to fold the cuff in such a way that it actually looks quite a lot like a French cuff once the cufflink is in. 

This adds an instantly formal and sophisticated edge to an otherwise basic and simple barrel cuff. 

The best way to wear a cuff adapter is with a shirt that’s long enough for the cuff to be folded back once. Doing so will allow you to keep the adapter hidden within the fold. 

If you don’t have a shirt that’s long enough to fold like this, don’t worry. 

You can simply wear the adapter and accept that it may be slightly visible from certain angles. 

4. Button Cover Cufflinks

This is probably the simplest solution to the problem but does require a special set of cufflinks to be bought separately. 

If you’ve already got a pair of cufflinks you’re keen on wearing, this won’t be an option. 

But if you want to own a nifty set of cufflinks you can wear with any buttoned shirt you own, you should really consider “button cover cufflinks”. 

Here’s a pair on Amazon as an example: 

As the name would suggest, these cufflinks come with a special clasp that allows you to literally cover up the button. 

You simply clip the clasp around the button and close the cufflink over it like a lid. 

They usually come in different sizes. 

What’s great about button cover cufflinks is that they can be worn comfortably with practically any shirt you can think of. 

The cuff won’t have the same sophisticated and structured edge of a French cuff, but it doesn’t really matter. 

They’ll allow you to make your cuffs look more interesting and eye-catching. In men’s style, it’s the little touches like this that make all the difference. 

Conclusion

There you have it. Four solid ways to wear cufflinks with any buttoned shirt you may or may not already own. 

If one of them didn’t do it for you, there’s a great chance that one of the others did. 

While it’s always good to own at least one shirt with French cuffs, these methods should allow you to wear cufflinks even if you don’t. 

Enjoy.