In a perfect wardrobe, all the shirts and jackets have a perfect sleeve length that reveal that ideal one-quarter to one-half inch of shirt cuff. But if you haven’t brought the shirts to the tailor, or if the shirt is new and hasn’t shrunk to size yet, there is a solution to “shortening” shirt sleeves: elastic arm bands.
In the days of yore, my cheap and chipper workaround for this problem was to literally use large rubber bands like the ones my mail carrier used to wrap a bunch of letters together. Of all the cheesy wardrobe hacks, like alleged billionaire Donald Trump using scotch tape to secure the narrow end of his necktie to the front, the rubber band was a cheap trick that worked (until the rubber dried out). And even though it worked, the sight of a flesh-colored rubber band around my arm was never a good look when I took a jacket off. And occasionally, the friction from the naked rubber could snag the Bemberg sleeve lining when putting a jacket on. Proper elastic arm bands fix that.
These simple, adjustable gimmicks do the job perfectly. The less expensive ones, which I have, are made with sturdy elastic bands just like suspenders – or “braces,” as our British friends call them – enabling the band to grab the arm and hold the shirt sleeve without rubbing or chafing any material. A slightly fancier iteration is made with tight coiled metal and works like a Twist-o-Flex watch band. They’re a one-time purchase, and every guy could use a pair.
Mine came from my friends Matt and Enrique at Fine and Dandy in New York City. No need to fly to the Big Apple, though. The arm bands, along with every other men’s accessory you could ever need or want, are available on their website.
Get ’em here: fineanddandyshop.com
5 Comments
George, what a great shop! Thanks for sharing it with us, and I shared your post on Facebook for others. I need to get a pair AND I want a pair of spats for the winter.
Yep, they have spats!
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Thank you for the great store link, and style suggestion! I’m not quite sure I needed red, black, and silver, but I went for it anyway:).
When I lived in Tokyo in the 90’s, arm bands were very popular. There they were usually Metal – similar to the springy metal of a watch band. They looked cool too.