--- title: Woman Discovers True Purpose of Jacket Straps, Gets Laughs description: A woman's discovery about the reason for a shoulder strap on certain types of jackets has the internet laughing. canonical: https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-02T15:12:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:47.343Z og:title: Woman's Revelation About Jackets Has Gotten a Lot of Laughs og:description: Here's one way to make use of that shoulder snap detail og:url: https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman's Revelation About Jackets Has Gotten a Lot of Laughs twitter:description: Here's one way to make use of that shoulder snap detail twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Woman's Discovery About Jackets Gets a Lot of Laughs  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 2, 2018 3:12 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 2, 2018 3:12 PM UTC Fashion can be [confusing](http://time.com/5434706/meghan-markle-tag/). But now we have a new explanation for at least one common detail found on jackets — and it’s a theory that has given the internet plenty of laughs this week. “Taken me 18 years to find out that the weird shoulder buttons on jackets is to hold your bag in place so it doesn’t fall off,” shared Twitter user Francheska Horsburgh recently. “Who knew?” Horsburgh’s discovery quickly made the rounds online as people considered the real reason for the [epaulettes](http://time.com/4871641/game-of-thrones-season-7-fashion/), or shoulder straps, that adorn many jackets that evolved from military style. As it turns out, the fashion detail wasn’t actually born out of the need to keep your handbag on your shoulder, per se. It’s actually a lasting nod to formal military uniforms, where the straps [were used](https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/naval-traditions-names-of-rank/officer/epaulettes-and-shoulder-straps.html) both to keep things shoulder sashes and belts in place, and to hold ornamental decorations (also [called epaulettes](https://www.acuarmy.com/collections/army-epaulettes)) that correlate with rank. The fact that the should straps also can now function as handbag holders is a handy (or hands-free, as it were) evolution of that earlier use case. And, if the responses to Horsburgh’s epiphany are to be believed, people are pretty excited to start using the straps this way. > [](https://twitter.com/Francheskahor6/status/1057028469283061760) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/"},"headline":"Woman's Discovery About Jackets Gets a Lot of Laughs","datePublished":"2018-11-02T15:12:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:47.343Z","description":"Always something new to learn in fashion","url":"https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","fashion"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5443063/jacket-snap-discovery/","name":"Woman's Discovery About Jackets Gets a Lot of Laughs"}}]}] ```