{"id":247364,"date":"2026-02-06T16:29:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/?p=247364"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:59:31","slug":"reflections-of-a-status-symbol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/reflections-of-a-status-symbol\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections of a status symbol"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Apostolos Kotsampasis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Beau Brummell would have approved of cufflinks \u2014 those tiny, gleaming fastenings that appeared in the late 17th century as discreet invitations to excess. Before them, men tied their shirt sleeves with ribbons or cords, practical but dull.<\/p>\n

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Then came the French cufflinks, which demanded something more refined: polished gold, engraved silver, enamel inlays by Faberg\u00e9 or Cartier, turning a sleeve into a billboard of pedigree. In the Victorian era, they were a clear symbol of social status: a duke\u2019s diamond cufflinks versus a clerk\u2019s brass imitations, signaling class differences in boardrooms and ballrooms. They shaped men\u2019s dress like invisible architecture \u2014 elevating the suit from uniform to statement, adding that final, obsessive detail. A man wearing Asprey cufflinks wasn\u2019t simply dressed; he was armored with ambition.<\/p>\n

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Now, in the age of athleisure \u2014 with Supreme hoodies and Uniqlo T-shirts \u2014 cufflinks seem like relics of a dead cultural era. Tech bros in Patagonia vests mock formality, while sportswear eliminates the need for cuffs altogether. And yet they persist \u2014 ironically on a Thom Browne shirt at fashion week, or with solemnity in hedge fund meetings \u2014 reminding us that elegance is a luxury most cannot afford or simply don\u2019t care about. The modern man scrolls through TikTok in sweatpants, wrists bare, unburdened. Cufflinks? Outdated ornaments for the ghosts of past ambitions. Or maybe not?<\/p>\n

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Photos: Courtesy Asprey\u00a0 LONDON<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Apostolos Kotsampasis Beau Brummell would have approved of cufflinks \u2014 those tiny, gleaming fastenings that appeared in the late 17th century as discreet invitations to excess. Before them, men tied their shirt sleeves with ribbons or cords, practical but dull. Then came the French cufflinks, which demanded something more refined: polished gold, engraved silver, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":247360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18542,18563,18496,18513],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247366,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247364\/revisions\/247366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mancodestyle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}