Greater Baton Rouge Business Report: Off the cuff no more: dressing with style and a link to the pas

They're either making a comeback or never went away, depending on whom you ask.

Cuff link entrepreneur Robbie Ratan is confident the elegant fasteners are making a re-entry into the dress habits of fashionable businessmen, and judging by a 50 percent increase in his sales this year, he may be right.

As founder of Texas-based Cufflinks.com, Ratan says he sells "thousands and thousands" of cuff links each year through his company's Web site, print catalogs and magazine ads.

"There's no questions about that. People are getting back to dressing better and wearing suits and that sort of thing."

The company sells more than 1,100 different types of cuff links. Career-oriented cuff links are hot: caducei for doctors, faucet handles for plumbers, propellers for pilots, saxophones for saxophonists, roulette wheels for ... well, you get the picture.

Clocks, compasses, thermometers, flashlights, ink pens, abacuses--all available in cuff link form.

After Sept. 11, American flags became extremely popular on the well-dressed wrist, though engraved silver or gold remains the absolute top seller.

Better late than never

Yvette Heath, assistant manager of Patton's Fine Jewelry in Baton Rouge, says the Bayou State is a couple of years behind the times in rediscovering the cuff link, but we're catching up.

"I've been in the business for 1.1 years myself, and within the last three to four years there's been a dramatic change. They went from nonexistent to where we get at least a few a month asking for cuff links."

Part of the reason, she believes, is that fashion designers these days are concentrating on making men dressier, leaning more toward dress shirts with French cuffs (cuffs that need cuff links).

The 45-and-older crowd seems to like the ornate look and specialty collectibles--toy trains and the like, Health says, though the 25 to 35 age group favors simpler, traditional designs.

Dave Parsons of Cohn Turner clothiers says cuff link sales have grown noticeably since last year. They were hot for Christmas, and they're hot now.

"Dressing up is starting to come back into style, and I think it's going to continue. I think with Bush in the White House, it will continue to be popular. I think it's a great look," he says.

Sartorial spin

Frederick W. Koenig, an emeritus professor of social psychology at Tulane University, agrees that a newfound workplace formality has put studied casualness on indefinite leave.

You can thank the recession, he says. When things were booming, dot-coin execs could wear sandals, shorts and T-shirts and still make a fortune. You didn't have to care how you looked, Koenig says, "because you were a hot item anyway."

Now that the party's over, the best-Cuff links are definitely in style for the well-dressed man. This selection is from Mayer Co. Clothiers.

dressed employee is the employee most desperate to keep his or her job. Fearing for their professional lives, co-workers continually try to "outdress" each other to project an image of rock-solid, indispensable, executive material.

Baton Rouge clothier Jim Mayer never gave up cuff links, and insists they never went out of style. He sells about 15 percent of his shirts with cuff links and has since the 1950s, he says.

"We have thousands. We have cat's eye, we have them with fly reels on them, we have them with buffalo nickels, Indian head pennies, Mercury dimes."

Mayer's favorite cuff links are a pair he gave as a gift in 1954, though he later got them back. They're solid gold, in a circle with a bar across and two gold balls.

"They're very neat and they're very special because they're something my father--who was also a clothier--wore."