History of Silk Knots and the Silk Knot Cufflink

Silk knot cufflinks are a relative latecomer to the history of shirt sleeve fasteners. The earliest fasteners were pins and draw strings. Buttons emerged first as a purely ornamental device, but by the 1300s were being used to fasten garments in Europe, the idea being brought by returning crusaders. Cufflinks came next in the 1600s, but only became significant in the 1840s upon the growth in popularity of the French cuffed shirt. Cufflinks popularity soared as the stamping process made them more affordable than the highly bejeweled early models. 

But the popularity of the French Cuffed  shirt created somewhat of a dilemma for mid-1800s tailors. To properly display the shirt, the sleeves needed to be held together. But the hand-made highly ornamental cufflinks of the time were too expensive to place on every pair of sleeves in their store. Further these hard cufflinks distracted attention from the finery of the shirt the tailor was trying to showcase. The solution was a single stitch to hold the shirt sleeves together. This eventually gave was to single loop of thread, and finally the silk knot.
 
The silk knot is essentially two monkey's fist knots, tied around a bead to give it shape and thickness. This simple design allowed the tailor to create a clean fastener that is in keeping with the fine construction of a shirt but does not distract. 
 
In the early 1900s as the excessive ornamentation of the past began to be regarded as gauche, the silk knot began to appear on the streets as a simple elegant alternative to the hard cufflink. Variants such as the silk barrel cufflink began to appear and the silk knot cufflink became cemented in men's fashions.
 
Today's silk knot cufflink is largely similar to those of the last century.  Although today silk is rarely used due to it's lack of elasticity and today many cheaper silk knots are no longer made by hand.

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