Sleeves can either be long or short. They are long on most shirts, but short on others, including sportshirts.

Types of sleeves

• Batwing sleeve, a long sleeve with a very deep armhole, tapering towards the wrist. Also known as a "magyar" sleeve.
• Bell sleeve, a long sleeve that is fitted from the shoulder to wrist and gently flared from wrist onward. The bell sleeve is very similar to the poet sleeve, but has a "cleaner look," often without ruffles.
• Bishop sleeve, a long sleeve, fuller at the bottom than the top, and gathered into a cuff (1940s)
• Cap sleeve, a very short sleeve not extending below armpit level
• Dolman sleeve, a long sleeve that is very wide at the top and narrow at the wrist
• Gigot sleeve or leg of mutton sleeve, a sleeve that is extremely wide over the upper arm and narrow from the elbow to the wrist
• Hanging sleeve, a sleeve that opens down the side or front, or at the elbow, to allow the arm to pass through (14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.)
• Juliette sleeve, a long, tight sleeve with a puff at the top, inspired by fashions of the Italian Renaissance and named after Shakespeare's tragic heroine; popular from the Empire period through the 1820s in fashion, again in the late 1960s under the influence of Zeffirelli's film
• Pagoda sleeve, a wide, bell-shaped sleeve popular in the 1860s, worn over an engageante or false undersleeve
• Paned sleeve, a sleeve made in panes or panels, allowing a lining or shirt-sleeve to show through (16th and 17th centuries)
• Poet sleeve, a long sleeve fitted from shoulder to elbow, and then flared (somewhat dramatically) from elbow to wrist (or sometimes mid-hand). Often features ruffles on the cuffs.
• Puffed or puff sleeve, a short, full sleeve gathered at the top and bottom, now most often seen on wedding and children's clothing
• Raglan sleeve, a sleeve that extends to the neckline
• Set-in sleeve, a sleeve sewn into an armhole (armscye)
• Two-piece sleeve, a sleeve cut in two pieces, inner and outer, to allow the sleeve to take a slight "L" shape to accommodate the natural bend at the elbow without wrinkling; used in tailored garments
• Virago sleeve, a full "paned" or "pansied" sleeve gathered into two puffs by a ribbon or fabric band above the elbow, worn in the 1620s and 1630s.
• 3/4 Length Sleeve, a sleeve which extends from the shoulder to a length mid-way between the elbow and the wrist. It was common in the United States in the 1950s and again 21st century.

References