FASHION : Objects of Desire : From antiques to tagua-nuts, buttons are popping up all over. They delight collectors and spark a tired wardrobe.
As he flew to Malcolm Forbes’ 1989 birthday bash in Morocco, New York interior designer Mario Buatta did what his tailor didn’t have time to do. He sewed antique brass buttons on his new Ralph Lauren blazer.
For Buatta--and millions of American consumers--buttons count. They are the detail that can turn almost any garment into a gem, miniature sculptures that give signals about the wearer and the designer. What’s more, in these tight economic times, buttons have new significance. Consumers are using them to revive old clothes or customize ho-hum new purchases. And designers in every price bracket are using buttons to embellish feminine, classic silhouettes.
In fact, the use of buttons is increasing so much that owners of fabric stores and trim companies say they have escaped the recession. “Our business has grown beyond my expectations,” says David Scharf, co-owner of Two Lads, a new Los Angeles button manufacturer. Sales of the jewelry-quality ornaments topped $500,000 in nine months. The reason? Designers are putting “more buttons on a garment than anything else.”
Barbara Barbara, whose BB Collections, a line of special-occasion dresses that retail from $160 to $250, says: “We buy affordable fabrics and put the money into trims, such as buttons. The customer feels she’s getting a little more for her money. The trim makes her say, ‘Wow! That’s a great dress.’ ”
The button selection available to designers and consumers ranges from antiques and expensive European imports to mass-manufactured buttons from Asia and the United States. Some artisans, such as Sharon McGovern of Venice, Calif., make and sell collectibles, called studio buttons, to fellow collectors.
For these collectors, the 18th and 19th Centuries were the glory days of buttons. After the introduction of plastic--which at first was turned into striking colors and designs--buttons rolled downhill. Due to a combination of factors--including mass production, the high cost of hand work and the limited use of exotic natural materials--buttons had lost much of their fashion appeal by 1960.
Most people credit the late Patrick Kelly with reviving the jewelry status of buttons. The designer’s 1985 button-smothered collection turned colorful, basic four-hole buttons into objects of desire. They spawned a demand by designers for bigger and better functional ornaments that range from the opulence of Christian Lacroix and Zang Toi to the whimsy of Todd Oldham and the romantic nostalgia favored by designers like Carole Little.
Some designers promote environmental awareness with their buttons. Santa Monica-based Barbara Lesser’s new line, Wearable Integrity (available at Ice in the Beverly Center and Terre Verde in Fred Segal, Santa Monica), features buttons made from tagua-nuts harvested in the rain forests of Ecuador.
Some buttons are so magical, they disappear from garments in stores. Earlier this year, Felicidad Noriega, wife of ousted Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, made news after she snipped 27 buttons, worth $305, from garments in a Burdines in suburban Miami. Retailers prefer not to publicize the problem. But brokers and manufacturers say it is common.
Urban areas such as Los Angeles and New York have spawned stores that sell buttons--and little else. Mario Buatta buys his at New York’s renowned Tender Buttons, where designers, artists and collectors congregate daily. Owners Diana Epstein and Millicent Safro say their celebrity clients include Buatta, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, Ali McGraw (who buys “Scottie buttons”) and Tom Wolfe, who wrote the preface to the Epstein-Safro book, “Buttons,” published last year by Harry N. Abrams. For collectors, it ranks with the so-called bible of button books, “The Big Book of Buttons,” by Elizabeth Hughes and Marion Lester, from New Leaf Publishers.
Now that the button business is booming, some retailers are becoming secretive about their sources. Safro refuses to divulge names of suppliers. “People would like to know where we find and have our buttons made,” she says. “There are people who go through our garbage.”
Barbara Diamond, owner of Left Bank Fabric Co. in Los Angeles, Tarzana and Newport Beach, says business is so good, she and her husband “go to Europe and bring back thousands and thousands of dollars in buttons. We find a lot of people are going to their wardrobes and taking out older clothing that is still beautiful but looks a little dated. They will come in and buy important-looking buttons.”
If a customer brings in a jacket with a single small button, Diamond says, “we encourage her to get one three times the size of the original and ignore the button hole. One button should be dramatic, and it makes the garment look new.”
Basic styles cost as little as 30 cents, but Diamond notes: “A special import will run $3 to $20 each. So essentially what you’re doing is buying jewelry for your clothing. If people think of it as costume jewelry, it doesn’t hurt so much.”
Susan Forte, a Los Angeles free-lance publicist, uses military buttons from around the world to make bracelets, earrings, cuff links, hair ornaments, brooches, belts and button covers. Sold under the S. Garland Designs label, they are available at Cleavage in Santa Monica and Brava in Redondo Beach. Prices range from $15 to $35.
Originally, Forte made pearl or gold animal covers for blouse buttons. But now her line includes bigger ones for women’s blazers and antiqued-gold covers for men’s shirt buttons that give the illusion of cuff links.
Men generally are less button-happy than women. But there are exceptions. George Small, owner of Chameleon, a button store in Los Angeles, tells of one repeat customer who brings in new suits by Matsuda and Hugo Boss. He buys antiques at an average cost of three for $100. And, if necessary, he has his tailor change the size of the buttonholes.
For creative purists, such as Elaine Cossman, a Los Angeles free-lance copywriter who makes button bracelets, removing shanks is against the rules. To turn buttons into brooches, Cossman and other collectors put a safety pin through the eye of the shank.
Another no-no, says Cossman, is storing “old plastic buttons with metal ones. Everything will be ruined because of the chemical reaction between the plastic and the metal.”
To make her $260 bangles--sold at Joan Vass and at Sentimental Journey in the Fred Segal, Santa Monica store--Cossman crochets bands and attaches 75 antiques of identical content, such as wood, crystal or Bakelite.
Buttons are so important to Todd Oldham’s blouse collection that three years ago he began designing his own in collaboration with his brother Brad, who oversees their production in Dallas. Materials range from wire to stained glass and hand-painted ceramics. So far, 1,000 styles have been produced. And in January, 25 of them were made available to the public in stores, such as F & S Fabrics in West Los Angeles.
For true button fanatics, there is nothing like a hunt in flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, button clubs or an untapped attic. Shelli Segal, designer of romantic sportswear for L. A.-based Laundry, likes to use European imports, which might cost $1 each, for her work. But for personal use, she visits flea markets where, she says: “Some people have bags of assorted buttons you can buy for $1 or $2.”
Last year, Segal bought 10 thrift store men’s jackets, decorated the lapels with vintage buttons and gave them to friends at Christmas. “The ones who appreciate antique clothing, loved it,” says Segal. “The others didn’t get it. But I had a good time.”
Not only that. Total cost of each designer creation was a mere $35.
Where to Button Up
What follows is a list of selected stores that sell buttons in Southern California.
NEW:
* F & S Fabrics, 10629 Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles; (310) 475-1637.
* International Silks & Woolens, 8347 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 653-6453.
* The Left Bank Fabric Co., 8354 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles (other stores in Tarzana and Newport Beach); (213) 655-7289.
MODERN AND ANTIQUE:
* Chameleon, formerly at 8422 1/2 W. 3rd St., reopens Aug. 15 within All Notions Galore, 8455 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 658-5473.
* Bruce Cole Antiques, 500 El Camino Real, Tustin; (714) 730-5502. Will provide information on local clubs.
INFORMATION FOR COLLECTORS:
* National Button Bulletin, National Button Society, Lois Pool, Secretary, 2733 Juno Place, Akron, Ohio 44333-4137
* California State Button Society, Alice Eubank, 2920 Yorba St., San Francisco, Calif. 94116
