Buttons up!

They were a 13th century invention of necessity, but it wasn’t long before for people elevated the humble button to a work of art. Today, the button can still be a purely functional element of an outfit, as in a dress shirt, or play a pivotal role in a garment’s fashion statement. Buttons which fall in the second cat- egory are particularly at risk when it comes to clean- ing. “But we don’t take chances with decorative buttons,” says Fashion Cleaner owner Kermit Engh. “We take the best possible course of action with our client’s garments.”

“Certain types of buttons, such as pearl, mother of pearl, or rhinestone, are at particular risk of being damaged during dry cleaning. At Fashion Cleaners, any button that is decorative, fragile or unique is removed before being cleaned and carefully replaced afterwards.”

Although we take them for granted, the button is actually an ingenious piece of human design. Buttons originated in Western Europe during the 1200’s when a form-fitting look was replaced by loose, free-flowing garments. But you couldn’t get the look with just a belt. Pins often worked, but it required a lot of them and they were easily lost or misplaced. Also, fabrics were becoming finer and more delicate and pins damaged the cloth. The invention of the button remedied both problems, and also started a button craze. Buttons and buttonholes appeared everywhere on a garment, even in impractical places, just so the owner could show them off. Just check out paintings of the 14th & 15th centuries and you’ll get the idea. It wasn’t long before buttons were works of art themselves, and were made of gold, silver and jewels.

Today’s fashion buttons are as treasured as their historical counter parts and should be treated as such. By removing and replacing these decorative details, your buttons will remain as bright and unblemished as when you first brought them home.

A Bit of Button Lore

Have you ever wondered why men’s and women’s clothing button differently? One theory says that men of that period, at court, when traveling or on the battlefield, generally dressed themselves. Most of them were right-handed and so buttoned left over right. But women who could afford expensive, buttoned clothing had dressing servants (again, most were right-handed). As they faced the woman while dressing her, button placement was inverted. For some reason, it’s never been changed.

Other interesting button bits:

The custom of sewing extra buttons on coat sleeves was done to discourage gentlemen from using their sleeve as a handkerchief.
The Chinese wore only five buttons on their coat fronts symbolizing the five principal virtues of Confucius: humanity, justice, order, prudence and rectitude.
Louis XIV is said to have spent $600,000 on jeweled buttons for one of his garments.
Button as a noun became a verb during the 13th century.
During World War I the British Army used 367 different kinds of buttons. Buttons were considered so important to front line troops that any kind of button could be requisitioned and delivered with eight hours. The British Army spent $500,000 per year just for the paste used to polish the buttons.