Buttons literally hold everything together in fashion

Buttons are completely underestimated. They are much more than functional interfaces that you sometimes close and sometimes open. Buttons are ornaments, a source of tension and an erotic barometer.

When fashion people want to be a little mean, they don't compliment a person's entire outfit, but say: “Nice buttons.” A poisonous compliment, like celebrating the anchor on a superyacht or the mineral water at a Michelin-starred meal. After all, buttons are, broadly speaking, a mere means to an end, just as exciting as zippers.

OK, now everyone should imagine a few items of clothing without them. A polo shirt. A trench coat. The pink Chanel suit Jackie Kennedy wore during the Dallas assassination. All the sexy Versace dresses with gold Medusas. N/A? What happens in your mind's eye? Without their buttons, all of these items would not only be very open and somewhat naked, they would simply no longer be the same. They would be missing a crucial design element.

Donatella Versace is known for gold details: a look from the Milan fashion house's fall collection.

Donatella Versace is known for gold details: a look from the Milan fashion house's fall collection.

Umberto Fratini launchmetrics.com/spotlight

A button-down look from Céline's Summer 2015 collection by Phoebe Philo.

A button-down look from Céline's Summer 2015 collection by Phoebe Philo.

Daniele Oberrauch / launchmetrics.com

A button-down shirt wouldn't be a button-down shirt without buttons, a gold button blazer would lose its entire identity, even a denim jacket would not only be a bit impractical without the many studded buttons, but above all a lot less casual.

This summer was a button-to-button race

Most of them, however, wear buttons so unconsciously that they have not even noticed that this summer was a real button-to-button race. Chanel's haute couture fashion show – entitled “The Button” – took place under an iconic CC button that was suspended from the ceiling like a giant protective shield.

Haute couture under the iconic Chanel button: The “The Button” show was a homage to it.

Haute couture under the iconic Chanel button: The “The Button” show was a homage to it.

Courtesy of Chanel

For the latest designer collaboration, H&M teamed up with South Korean designer Rokh, who not only loves buckles, but also buttons and what you can do with them: A trench coat, actually seen a thousand times, was spectacular because it had an additional layer that could be buttoned on or off at the side. The button panel on the back of a jacket not only served as an eye-catcher, but also changed the fit if desired.

Or this strange knitted cape by Loewe, which stylists were literally fighting over so that they could immortalize it in a fashion spread. Without the huge gold buttons at the front, any woman would look like an oversized egg cosy. But with them as a contrast to the coarse knit, the whole thing immediately looked different. Like art, or at least like coarser fashion.

Fashion stylists' favorite piece: knitted cape with gold buttons from Loewe's summer 2024 collection.

Fashion stylists' favorite piece: knitted cape with gold buttons from Loewe's summer 2024 collection.

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The high point so far: When the assembled celebrities were showing up at the Cannes Film Festival and showing off semi-transparent dresses, Anne Hathaway was attending a Bulgari event in Rome. She wore a white shirt dress with a collar that didn't sound very spectacular on paper. But the way she wore it – lasciviously unbuttoned at the top and skirt, with a white corset underneath – immediately sparked excited Google searches. What is it? Where can you buy it? Answer: At Gap, although the new creative director Zac Posen had actually only designed it as a one-off piece for the actress. Due to the great response, the dress was quickly produced for sale. It was sold out within hours.

Guys like Ryan Gosling give a deep insight

Buttons can be used to fasten items of clothing – but above all, they open up new possibilities. We use the button panel to signal whether we are buttoned up or would rather be more open-hearted. It's like an erotic barometer that we set ourselves. A little open today, buttoned up tomorrow, depending on our mood, the occasion and the spirit of the times. In the past, only Latin lovers and bon vivants like Gunter Sachs left their shirts unbuttoned to the middle of their chest.

Today, guys like Ryan Gosling are showing off their talent, as is the well-trained sixty-year-old Lenny Kravitz. Or you can wear the “unbuttoned shirt look” with a tank top or T-shirt underneath, like in the nineties. Buttons are really outdated at some point. That's why Kurt Cobain probably didn't care at all that a button was missing from his green mohair cardigan, which he wore at the “MTV Unplugged” concert in 1993. The current owner, who bought the cardigan at auction in 2019 for $334,000, is unlikely to have replaced it.

The button strip as an erotic barometer: Ryan Gosling.

The button strip as an erotic barometer: Ryan Gosling.

Getty Images

In fact, who ever has the exact model that fell off somewhere? Who can remember where they kept all the mini bags with the replacement buttons that came with the item? Nobody.

Playing with buttons can be so exciting that we owe them to some of the most erotic moments on screen. In Martin Scorsese's “The Ages of Innocence,” Daniel Day-Lewis is sitting in a carriage with Michelle Pfeiffer; they are lovers who are not allowed to be together. And then it happens: He takes off his glove and very carefully unbuttons hers with his right hand.

One button after the other, little pearls, until he has uncovered her hand and kisses her gently on it. The fact that they then kiss properly is actually irrelevant. The button act alone was as erotic for him as if Pfeiffer had been completely undressed, said the famous cameraman Michael Ballhaus about the scene he shot. When buttons open in a film, a whole world opens up in the imagination. Women only need to touch the button panel of their blouse with both hands and you can practically see where the whole thing is going.

From everyday object to accessory: This is the history of buttons

Buttons were originally intended purely for decoration. In Southeast Asia, small shells that were filed round and triangular were worn around 4,000 years ago. They had two holes in them for sewing, but no corresponding buttonhole. In Europe, too, the sack-like clothing was still held together with pins and belts. It was not until the 13th century, when fashion was tighter and fabrics were more delicate, that buttons were discovered for fastening.

Artistic buttons are also made from natural materials such as horn, wood or mother of pearl (picture).

Artistic buttons are also made from natural materials such as horn, wood or mother of pearl (picture).

Theodor Barth / Laif

Check out Olivier Rousteing's new fall collection for Parisian label Balmain.

Check out Olivier Rousteing's new fall collection for Parisian label Balmain.

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There was even supposed to have been a real inflation of buttons on a regular basis, with clothes sometimes having more than 200 of them. A holy fiddling, which also explains why many men's and women's shirts still have button panels on different sides today: wealthy women did not dress themselves back then, so the buttons were attached on the left so that a dresser could close them with her right hand. Men buttoned their clothes themselves, and their button panels were accordingly on the right side.

How much buttons can decorate and impress can be seen at Schiaparelli, where founder Elsa Schiaparelli even uses buttons in the shape of little beetles that then crawl surreally over the designs. And of course at Chanel, whose emblematic buttons are not only part of the brand's DNA, but are also made in the most famous button factory in the world: at Desrues in Plailly, a small town north of Paris. 150 employees here produce around three million buttons a year for Chanel alone.

Twin set with decorative buttons from the Schiaparelli autumn collection.

Twin set with decorative buttons from the Schiaparelli autumn collection.

Courtesy of Schiaparelli

She previously worked for other brands such as Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci, and in 2022 Balenciaga turned to her for its haute couture collection because there is simply no better address for artistic designs and the highest level of workmanship. In 1929, founder Georges Desrues started in a small workshop in the Marais and trusted fashion designers such as Christian Dior, Jeanne Lanvin and Yves Saint Laurent.

There was a particularly close collaboration with Chanel, which is why the luxury group took over the Maison in 1985 and secured the know-how under the roof of its “Métiers d'Art” department. It takes a good dozen work steps to finish a button. For the metal ones, an individual wax mold is first made into which the individual pieces are cast. Then each button is ground by hand, polished, hung on small wires for electrolysis, painted and finally perhaps given the famous double C. They do not find this effort excessive here, on the contrary.

Today, buttons are either tone-in-tone or extra decorative

Buttons are an equal part of every design, because their design also reflects the spirit of the times. “If they are the wrong ones, they ruin the whole outfit,” Christian Dior once said. In the sixties, buttons had to be large and colorful, in the eighties they were decorated with gold, and in the nineties they became more minimalist. Nowadays they are either tone-on-tone or extra decorative. Matthieu Blazy often uses them at Bottega Veneta like small decorative piercings, and Nicolas Ghesquière sometimes uses them like sewn-on brooches on a top.

Every button is a mini piece of jewelry, that's Desrues' motto. And nothing is impossible. When Karl Lagerfeld shipped an entire iceberg to the Grand Palais, he asked for matching metal buttons with little igloos on them – and of course he got them. Apparently, no button ended up on a jacket or dress without Lagerfeld's personal approval.

Top model Karen Mulder in Vogue in 1992, when gold decorative buttons were popular and fashionable: The more of them, the better.

Top model Karen Mulder in Vogue in 1992, when gold decorative buttons were popular and fashionable: The more of them, the better.

Arthur Elgort/Conde Nast/Getty Images

His successor, Virginie Viard, who was in office until recently, was similarly obsessed with details, which is why she even dedicated an entire couture collection to the button, the “The Button” show mentioned above. In the short film of the same name, actress Margaret Qualley discovers that a silver cufflink is missing from her Chanel jacket, an heirloom.

They then traveled to Paris to have it sewn back on in the studio. There she met an alter ego of Coco Chanel, who sewed the button back on for her, but also told her that true beauty no longer has to be perfect over time. The young woman then understood the emotional value of the missing button – and ripped off the satisfied one. Kurt Cobain would have agreed with her.

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