Split Sleeve Jackets, Why Split?

[Rick]

What is the background to the split sleeve jacket design? An example of such a jacket can be found at:
http://www.alcaigpipebandsupplies.co...product&id=118

Are the buttoms ever buttoned?

Thanks.

[Doc Hudson]

14th, 15th, and 16th Century fashion, nothing more or less.

I suspect the fashion started as a way to show off more expensive fabric in the attire of wealthy nobles.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

In the sixteenth century, the Gaelic people of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland wore a style of short jaket called an ionar. This jacket had sleeves that were open along the bottom, and either tied or buttoned at the cuff.

The reason for this was because the shirts they wore at the time (called in Gaelic leine), had extremely long, full sleeves.
http://albanach.org/leine.html

You can see pictures in the article linked above to men wearing the ionar with the leine. Sometimes the sleeves are worn loose, sometimes fastened at the wrist.

I suspect jackets that are today made with split sleeves are modeled after the sixteenth century ionar.

Aye,
Matt

[Verlyn]

Ya know, Matt, anywhere else on the planet, we'd have to pay a lot of money for the kinds of information you freely provide. Once again, thanks for the free history lesson.

[Woodsheal]

Slashed-sleeve doublets were also popular in the rest of Britain and on the Continent during that same time-frame. The origins of the style may have had something to do with easing restriction on one's sword arm....