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Button Culture

The earliest buttons date to prehistoric times, and in spite of millennia of change in fashion and manufacturing techniques,the button has endured as the most common fabric fastener. Though buttons were used for thousands of years, the buttonhole was not invented until sometime in the 13th century. The button hole is thought to have been brought to Europe from the Middle East by knights returning from the Crusades, and its advent led to a surge in button use. Buttons became a staple of men's fashion in the Renaissance, when jackets often featured rows of buttons from chin to waist, sleeves were tightly buttoned from elbow to wrist, and trousers too sported buttons at the waist, knee, or thigh. Guilds of button makers were in existence in Paris in the 13th century, where buttons were made out of a variety of materials including wood, bone, brass, pewter, gold, and silver.

 

By the 18th century, the button industry flourished all across Europe, and artisans developed many different techniques for making them. The court of Louis XIV of France set the fashion for intricate buttons of precious metals and jewels and fabric buttons of embroidered cloth. English manufacturers invented steel buttons, and glass or glass and metal buttons were popular in France. Many artists famous in other trades also lent their skills to the button industry. The French painter Antoine Watteau made buttons, and some of the leading names in fine china such as Wedgwood, Limoges, and Staffordshire are also associated with fine buttons.

 

By the late 18th century, buttons began to be made in factories. Metal buttons were punched out by dies, and die-makers were prohibited from emigrating from England, so that they would not take their trade secrets abroad. Nevertheless, the technology spread, and buttons began to be mass-produced in metal, glass, and other materials. Extravagant buttons were still popular elements of 19th-century fashion. Diemakers turned out complex designs using scenes from plays, novels, and nursery rhymes, and Wagner operas and the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan were routinely commemorated with buttons depicting scenes and characters.

 

By the early 20th century, the prevailing style was much simpler, reflecting the more sedate look of the growing white-collar class. Inexpensive matched shirt buttons for men and women were available in five-and-dime stores around 1910. Plastic buttons became widely available in the 1930s, though most typical shirt buttons were still made of sea shells or other natural materials. World War II brought many advances in plastic technology. Acrylic buttons were actually made from material left over from the manufacture of bomber gun turrets. The button industry converted almost entirely to plastic after the war. Plastic buttons could be made by a variety of methods. They could be mold cast, where plastic slugs cut from a long rod are placed in a two-part mold. The mold is closed, and heat and pressure applied to finish the button. Another process is injection molding. In this method, melted plastic is forced into a mold with a button-shaped cavity. Outlined below is the most common process for making plastic buttons: die cutting from cylinder-cast polyester.