For centuries, men and women weren’t dressing the same way or even by the same people. Men typically dressed themselves and were usually right-handed, so tailors put the buttons on the right to make life easier.

Wealthy women were often dressed by attendants, and those attendants faced the wearer. Buttons placed on the wearer’s left lined up perfectly with the dresser’s right hand, which sped up the whole process.

The habit stuck long after personal dressers did not. Today it’s just a tiny relic of a time when getting dressed was a team sport for half the population.