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Garlands, wreaths and flowers that are worn

Boutonnière and corsage

A single flower in the lapel buttonhole, and a small spray pinned to a dress or tied to the wrist, for formal occasions.

These are the smallest flower arrangements people wear. A boutonnière, called a buttonhole in Britain, is one flower on the left lapel of a jacket. A corsage is a little cluster of flowers for a woman's shoulder or wrist. Both belong to weddings, dances and ceremonies, and both are made to last one day.

The description of the concept in this drawing is: Flowers or small bouquets worn, usually by a man, in the buttonhole of the lapel. (AAT)
Photo: David Ring, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

What it is

The classic buttonhole is a single carnation, rosebud or cornflower, with its stem pushed through the buttonhole of the left lapel and held by a small loop of thread behind. Modern ones are often pinned on instead, with a sprig of leaf behind the flower. A corsage has two or three flowers, some foliage and a ribbon. It is pinned below the shoulder or fixed to an elastic band for the wrist. In the United States a wrist corsage and a matching boutonnière are part of the school prom.

Where it comes from

Both words are French. Boutonnière means buttonhole. Corsage means the bodice of a dress, and a bouquet de corsage was the spray pinned to it. Men in Europe wore lapel flowers widely in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The carnation has kept some particular uses. Oscar Wilde and his circle made a green dyed one famous in the 1890s. Students at Oxford still wear carnations with formal dress to their examinations: white for the first paper, pink for those in between, red for the last.

How it is made

The flower is cut with a short stem and given a long drink. For a wired buttonhole, the florist pushes a thin wire through the base of the flower, bends it down along the stem and binds both in green florist's tape. One or two leaves are wired the same way and taped behind the flower. A corsage is built from several wired pieces taped together into a small fan. Wiring makes the piece light and lets each flower be turned to face forward.

How to take part

  1. Choose a firm flower that survives without water: carnation, spray rose or small orchid.
  2. Wear a buttonhole on the left lapel, flower up, stem down.
  3. Pin from behind the lapel so that the pin does not show.

Good manners

  • At a wedding the groom's flower usually echoes the bride's bouquet, and guests wear something plainer.
  • Keep buttonholes and corsages cool, in a box in the fridge, until an hour before they are needed.

The flowers

BoutonnièreA single flower worn on a suit or tuxedo lapel for formal occasionsCorsageA small bouquet worn on the dress or wrist for formal eventsCarnationA fragrant flower with ruffled petals, grown worldwide for decoration and meaningRoseWoody perennial plants with showy, often fragrant flowers in many coloursCornflowerA bright blue wildflower once common in European grain fieldsGardeniaA fragrant white-flowered shrub from tropical regions worldwide

Also part of it, and being written: Orchidaceae.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Customs vary from place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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