Cufflinks are one of the few pieces of men's jewellery that have a practical job. A French cuff has no button, so without a cufflink the sleeve simply flaps open. That makes them less a style statement than a skill, and a slightly fiddly one the first few times.
This guide covers the step-by-step method for double and single cuffs, the difference between kissing and barrel styles, the main cufflink mechanisms and how easy each is to use, and when cufflinks belong in an Indian wardrobe: office, weddings, receptions and black tie. It also covers what most guides skip, including when a groom should not bother with cufflinks at all.
What is a French cuff shirt?
A French cuff, also called a double cuff, is a shirt cuff roughly twice the normal length that folds back on itself and is fastened with a cufflink instead of a button. When folded, it has four buttonholes, two on each side, that line up so a single cufflink passes through all of them.
There are three cuff types you need to recognise before buying cufflinks:
| Cuff type | How it fastens | Takes cufflinks? |
|---|---|---|
| Barrel cuff | Sewn button and one buttonhole | No |
| Convertible cuff | Sewn button plus a second buttonhole | Yes, optionally |
| Single link cuff | Two buttonholes, no button, not folded | Yes, required |
| French (double) cuff | Four buttonholes, folded back | Yes, required |
Most ready-made formal shirts sold in India have barrel or convertible cuffs. If you want to wear cufflinks regularly, check the cuff before you buy the shirt, or ask your tailor for French cuffs on a made-to-measure order.
How to put on cufflinks with a French cuff
Put the shirt on first and fasten the cufflinks while wearing it. It is easier to line the holes up on your wrist than on a hanger, and you avoid forcing a fastened cuff over your hand.
- Fold the cuff back. Turn the long cuff back on itself so the fold sits just past your wrist bone and all four buttonholes show. Keep the fold straight and even.
- Press the ends together. Bring the two open edges together so the inside faces of the fabric touch, like two palms pressed together. This is the kissing position. All four buttonholes should now sit in a line.
- Push the cufflink through. Turn the toggle so it is in line with the post. Push it through all four holes from the outer side of the wrist, so the decorative face stays on the outside.
- Lock it. Flip the toggle back so it sits flat across the holes on the inner side. Tug the cuff gently: it should hold without the link turning.
Do the harder hand first. Most right-handed men find the right cuff awkward because the left hand has to do the fiddly work, so do that one while you still have patience.
How to wear cufflinks with a single or convertible cuff
A single link cuff has two buttonholes and is not folded, so the method is shorter. Bring the two ends together in the kissing position, push the cufflink through both holes from the outside, and lock the toggle.
On a convertible cuff, ignore the sewn button. Use the two buttonholes as you would on a single cuff. The button stays on the inner side, hidden under the fold of the fabric. If it presses into your wrist, a tailor can remove it without harming the shirt.
Kissing style vs barrel style
Kissing style, with both inside faces pressed together and the cuff edges pointing away from the wrist, is the traditional and more formal way to wear a French cuff. Barrel style overlaps the cuff like a regular button cuff, with the inside of one edge resting on the outside of the other.
Kissing style is the traditional choice with a suit, tuxedo or bandhgala, and neither style is wrong. Barrel style is flatter and reads as more businesslike, and it slips more easily under a snug knit or a narrow jacket sleeve. Any cufflink type works in either style; in barrel style only the decorative face shows.
What are the types of cufflinks?
Cufflinks are sorted by how they fasten. The fastening decides how easy they are to put on alone and how secure they are, which matters more day to day than the design on the face.
| Type | How it fastens | Ease of use | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bullet back | A small bullet-shaped toggle that swivels flat | Easiest | Daily office wear |
| Whale back | A flat, fish-tail shaped toggle that flips down | Easy, very secure | Heavier faces, formal wear |
| Fixed back | A solid bar or ball, no moving part | Hardest to insert, nothing to break | Traditional, vintage styles |
| Chain link | Two faces joined by a short chain | Fiddly alone | Kissing or barrel style, formal events |
| Silk knot | Two knotted silk balls joined by silk | Easy, soft | Casual and summer wear |
If you are buying your first pair, a bullet-back or whale-back cufflink in plain metal will do more work than anything else. Chain links are the most traditional, but they take practice and sometimes a second pair of hands.
How much cuff should show under a jacket?
About a quarter to half an inch (roughly 6 to 13 mm) of shirt cuff should show below the jacket sleeve when your arms hang straight. That little strip of white is what makes cufflinks visible at all. If the jacket sleeve covers the cuff completely, the cufflinks will only appear when you reach forward.
If your cuffs disappear, the fix is almost always at the jacket, not the shirt. A tailor can shorten jacket sleeves by a centimetre or two quite cheaply. Check your shirt sleeve length too: a French cuff should end at the base of the thumb, not on the back of the hand.
When should you wear cufflinks?
Wear cufflinks whenever you wear a shirt with French or link cuffs. The shirt makes the decision for you. The real question is when to choose a French-cuff shirt, and the answer depends on the dress code.
| Occasion | French cuffs? | What to wear with them |
|---|---|---|
| Formal office, banking, law | Yes, often | Plain metal cufflinks, small and quiet |
| Board meeting or interview | Optional | Simple metal; nothing that swings or flashes |
| Wedding guest in a suit | Yes | Metal or stone-set, matching your watch |
| Reception or cocktail, groom | Yes | A pair chosen to match the tie pin or lapel pin |
| Black tie | Yes, with shirt studs | Cufflinks and studs as a matching set |
| Sherwani or kurta | No | Sherwani or kurta buttons instead |
For most Indian weddings the question splits by event. The sherwani or achkan for the pheras is worn over a kurta, so there is nothing to fasten, and jewelled buttons do the job cufflinks would do elsewhere. The reception, cocktail or sangeet look is where cufflinks come in, with a suit, tuxedo or bandhgala over a French-cuff shirt. See our guide to groom jewellery for a sherwani for the ceremony look.
Cufflinks vs shirt studs
Cufflinks close the cuffs. Shirt studs replace the buttons down the front of a formal dress shirt, usually three or four of them, and are worn only with black tie. You need studs only if your dress shirt has buttonholes on both sides of the placket and no buttons sewn on.
If you do wear both, they should match. A matched set of cufflinks and studs in the same metal and the same stone is the black-tie convention. Most men will never own studs, and that is fine.
How to match cufflinks with a watch, tie pin and ring
Match the metal colour across everything on your hands and chest: cufflinks, watch case, tie pin or tie bar, and ring. White metals (silver, white gold, platinum, steel) sit together; yellow gold sits with yellow gold. The designs do not need to match, the colour does.
A few practical rules:
- One point of sparkle. If your cufflinks are stone-set, keep the tie pin plain, or the other way round.
- Scale to the cuff. Faces around the width of a shirt button to twice that sit neatly on most cuffs; very large faces catch on the jacket lining.
- Black diamonds and onyx read as quiet and formal, and suit a dark suit or tuxedo.
- Leave the wrist bracelet off the watch hand when wearing cufflinks. Three pieces of metal at one wrist crowd the cuff.
For how cufflinks sit alongside a tie accessory, see our comparison of the tie pin vs tie clip, and for the chest, our guide on how to wear a lapel pin.
How AXIOM approaches this
Our men's accessories sit alongside cufflinks rather than replacing them: tie pins, lapel pins and buttons made in solid 925 sterling silver, several set with diamonds. If you already own white-metal cufflinks, the Lineage Tie Pin, in 925 sterling silver with lab-grown white diamonds, keeps the tie in the same colour family as the cuffs and the watch.
The practical takeaway
Buy the shirt first, then the cufflinks. One pair of plain bullet-back or whale-back links in the same metal colour as your watch will cover the office, most weddings and almost every reception. Fasten the harder wrist first, wear the face on the outside, and make sure a quarter to half an inch of cuff shows below the sleeve, or nobody will ever see them.
