At least thrice a month I see someone on the subway who hasn't cut the tacking stitch off the back of their suit jacket (that lil' "X"), and then I spend my entire commute wondering if I should alert the authorities.
Turns out, I'm not alone: Someone submitted a question to Ask A Manager about whether they can say something to everyone they see with this stitch still on:
This is low-risk question, but I was hoping you or your readers could help me address a pet peeve of mine. I live in NYC and see a lot of people, both men and women, while I commute and who I work with, who don’t cut off their “X” tacking. I even saw one person reinforce the tacking! I think this may be a nuance of professional polish that has been lost from common knowledge and I just want to help educate people. But how weird is it to go up to random strangers and be like, here let me cut this thread near your butt (kidding)! Do I try to tell people, for the betterment of fashion-kind or continue to mentally be exasperated at their ignorance? What should I say without sounding obnoxious or condescending?
Long story short, unless the person is a close friend, you should just ignore this crime of fashion — otherwise you'd be crossing some boundaries.
Since this is such a common occurrence (lots of people commented on the Ask A Manager post expressing the same pet peeve!), here's a rundown for anybody who's new to this whole tacking thing.
So, what's up with those stitches? They fasten the jacket's vent (that flap on the back) to keep it from getting wrinkled while it ships to a store and then sits on a rack, waiting for you to take it home.
Once you buy it, snip those stitches! Let that flap vent! Free your butt!
If you don't wear jackets, you're still not off the hook — the same goes for pencil skirts, too.
Without that tacking stitch, your jacket or skirt will fall on your body juuuuust right.
