Few accessories carry as much quiet history as the cufflink. Once a staple of any well-dressed man's wardrobe, men's cufflinks have spent the better part of two decades navigating a complicated relationship with relevance — dismissed by some as a relic of a more formal era, championed by others as one of the last genuine expressions of considered dressing for men. So where do they actually stand in 2026, and what does the future look like for an accessory that has been pronounced dead more than once?
The short answer is that men’s cufflinks are not dead. The longer answer is more interesting.
A Brief History of Getting Dressed Up
Cufflinks emerged in the 17th century as a practical solution to the problem of fastening shirt cuffs, replacing the ribbons and strings that preceded them. By the 19th century they had become a marker of social status and careful dress, crafted from precious metals and gemstones for the wealthy and from more modest materials for everyone else. The 20th century saw them reach their peak cultural presence — the well-turned-out businessman, the wedding guest, the formal occasion — before the casualisation of workplaces and social events began chipping away at their everyday relevance.
The open-collar look, the rise of business casual, and eventually the full retreat into athleisure and streetwear all played their part. By the early 2000s, many observers were writing cufflinks off as a formality that had simply run its course.
That turned out to be premature.
Why Cufflinks Have Held On
What saved men's cufflinks from full obsolescence is the same thing that has kept other formally coded accessories alive: weddings. The wedding industry is one of the most powerful forces in men's formalwear, and it has maintained a steady demand for accessories that would otherwise have faded. Grooms, groomsmen, and fathers of the bride continue to reach for cufflinks on the one or two occasions per year where the full dress shirt comes out of the wardrobe.
But it's not just weddings. There has been a genuine cultural shift in men's relationship with dressing over the past five to ten years. The wave of interest in tailoring, heritage menswear, and considered personal style that has run alongside — and partly in reaction to — the dominance of streetwear has brought formal accessories back into focus for a younger generation of men who are approaching them with fresh eyes rather than obligation.
For this group, men's cufflinks are not a burden to be tolerated at black-tie events. They are a deliberate choice — one of the few areas where a man in a suit can introduce genuine personality without departing from the formality of the occasion.
The Design Evolution
This shift in who is wearing cufflinks and why has had a noticeable effect on what is being made. The classic formats — the simple silver disc, the gold knot, the enamel rectangle — remain popular and probably always will. But alongside them has grown a far broader category of design that treats the cufflink as a canvas.
Novelty cufflinks have existed for decades, but the current crop is more sophisticated. Enamel work has become a particular area of interest, with designers producing detailed pictorial pieces that can carry personal references, cultural nods, or simply an image the wearer finds meaningful. Custom cufflinks — engraved, monogrammed, or made to a specific brief — have become a popular wedding gift category, particularly for groomsmen.
Materials have also diversified. Wood, carbon fibre, resin, and mixed-metal combinations have joined the traditional gold and silver options, expanding the aesthetic range of what a pair of cufflinks can look like. At the same time, the mechanics have improved — better swivel fittings, more secure closures, designs that are easier to fasten single-handed.
The Occasion Question
The most persistent challenge facing men's cufflinks is the shrinking of formal occasions in everyday life. Dress codes have relaxed across most professional environments, and the contexts where a French-cuffed shirt would once have been the obvious choice have narrowed considerably.
What this has done, however, is concentrate cufflink culture around the occasions where formality still matters — and those occasions, it turns out, are the ones people care about most. Weddings, awards events, milestone celebrations, formal dinners: these are not the settings where people are dressing reluctantly. The investment in appearance on these occasions tends to run higher, not lower, than everyday professional dress. That makes them fertile ground for accessories that reward attention.
The wedding context is worth dwelling on. Cufflinks remain one of the most thoughtful groomswear accessories available — personal, visible, and distinct from the standard-issue suit and tie combination. A well-chosen pair can carry a reference to the wearer's interests, a symbol meaningful to the couple, or simply a level of finish that elevates the overall look without being ostentatious.
Where Cufflinks Are Heading
The future of men's cufflinks is probably not a return to the daily office accessory they once were — that window has largely closed. But the category is finding a more secure footing in the occasions that remain, and the design conversation around them is livelier than it has been in years.
Personalisation is likely to be the dominant trend going forward. As more men approach formal dressing as a form of self-expression rather than compliance, the appeal of an accessory that can be made specific to them — engraved with a date, designed around an interest, chosen to match a broader wedding aesthetic — will only grow.
Sustainability is another consideration beginning to shape the market. Recycled metals, ethically sourced materials, and locally made pieces are all becoming part of the conversation in jewellery more broadly, and cufflinks are no exception.
Are men's cufflinks still trendy? Trend is perhaps the wrong framework for an accessory with a 400-year history. They are, more accurately, enduring — an accessory that has found a stable place in the occasions that still call for genuine formality, worn now by a generation that chooses them rather than simply inherits the habit.
That, arguably, puts them in a stronger position than they have been in for quite some time.
