Roll Up Your Sleeves!

On my way to lunch last week, I passed a woman in a button-front shirt with rolled up sleeves.  She looked so sharp that I found myself wondering, “Is there a ‘right’ way to roll up your sleeves?”  Then the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal published a diagram called “How to:  Roll Your Sleeve Like the Fashion Cognoscenti“.  It isn’t online, so I quote the newspaper directly after the jump. I use my Carissa Rose Justina shirt to show the contrast between cuff and sleeve.

Step One Bring your cuff halfway up your arm in a single, large fold.

Step Two Fold the remainder of the sleeve up once and tuck in the excess fabric, but don’t be too neat. Step Three Make sure the cuff peeks out.  Depending on your shirt and the size of your arms, one fold may be enough.

Step Four But for a tighter, more committed casual look, roll twice.

Below, I try it with my Moi-Meme shirt that I’m enjoying wearing today (a review of the altered shirt is coming soon!).  My arms are pretty short, so I only needed to fold it twice.  The cuff length is 2.5″.

Cuff halfway up my arm in a single fold.

Remainder of the sleeve folded up, excess fabric tucked in and cuff peeking out.

Of course this doesn’t actually mean there is a right way to roll up your sleeves, but now you know how the “fashion cognoscenti” do it.  I love that word . . . cognoscenti.