The OG fashion icon: Hobbyists collect, preserve and showcase buttons
Katherine Mansfield
Syliva Whiten无毛视频檚 husband, Bob Whiten, has his own, small collection of buttons from his firefighter parade coat. He has served with the Charleroi Fire Department for 60 years.
Katherine Mansfield
Sylvia Whiten keeps her buttons neatly organized in plastic and nostalgic containers, like this original Lidz Brothers box and an old, gifted tin.
Katherine Mansfield
Among Sylvia Whiten无毛视频檚 button collection are cards of buttons women used to purchase in stores, to add flair to garments. Today, collectors typically display their buttons on 9-by-12-inch card stock.
Katherine Mansfield
Sylvia Whiten admires a tin filled with buttons in her Charleroi home. Whiten has always loved buttons, began collecting in earnest during college and has never stopped.
Katherine Mansfield
Cathy Snyder peruses 无毛视频淭he Complete Button Book无毛视频� during the monthly Bethel Park Library Button Club meeting April 26. Meetings begin at 11 a.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month and include education, crafting, Q&A and socialization.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Katherine Mansfield
Cathy Snyder, right, and Anne Valentino admire and discuss head buttons, or portrait buttons, during the Bethel Park Button Club meeting April 26. Snyder collects and crafts with her buttons, while Valentino, who does not collect buttons, attends meetings to appreciate others无毛视频� collections and learn more about buttons and history.
Katherine Mansfield
Ladies admire head buttons, or portrait buttons, during a Bethel Park Button Club meeting at the library (peep the QEII button in the top row). One member said they无毛视频檝e learned more about history through buttons than reading.
Beverly Calvert turned a button collection into home decor, using Americana-type buttons to create a lovely lamp for her Washington home's guest room. Buttons have for decades served as fashion and design statements.聽
Gina Powers' mother hand-made plaster Alice in Wonderland buttons for a Keystone Button Club festival, and Powers keeps the entire six-button set safely in her own collection. Powers said buttons allow miniature artists, many of whom are working in buttons today, to really shine.
One of the best parts of attending a button convention is the competition. Collectors choose from a list of themes, curate a competition card and submit their card, complete with each button's description, like what material it is made of, to judges for the chance to win small prizes and, more importantly, share their button collection. Gina Powers submitted (and took home first place for!) a dog button card at a recent competition.
Like her mother, Marie Trossman keeps her buttons in a tin, and has a few favorites, like those she's holding in this image. Trossman began collecting buttons out of habit and continues to keep the extra buttons that come on clothing and other neat pieces.
When her mother passed away last year, Marie Trossman requested the button collection, which includes loose buttons, leather buttons, and buttons still on their original cards. Trossman said there's something about her mother's buttons, pictured here, that binds her to her memories.聽
From status symbol to curious collectible and everything in between, the button, that underrated but oh-so-important part of clothing, is preserved locally by enthusiasts who revel in the joys of sharing and swapping buttons.
无毛视频淣ot everyone would do this,无毛视频� said Sylvia Whiten, dumping a container of green buttons on her Charleroi living room table. 无毛视频淣ot everyone would take the time to go through these and to look at them. They无毛视频檙e very meaningful to me.无毛视频�
Whiten无毛视频檚 collection consists of hundreds of thousands of buttons kept neatly in color-coded containers, which she pulls out from time to time to admire 无毛视频� and show off.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 very cool to share them,无毛视频� she said. 无毛视频淚无毛视频檓 very proud of it.无毛视频�
Whiten无毛视频檚 earliest button memories date to childhood: She vividly remembers playing with the buttons in her grandmother无毛视频檚 sewing tin.
无毛视频淚 would put them out on the floor in different groups and different sizes. There无毛视频檇 be just every color, every size, just everything. I really thought I had the world, something wonderful, because they just meant so much,无毛视频� Whiten said.
As she grew, so too did Whiten无毛视频檚 collection. Her passion for buttons led her to the Bethel Park Button Club, which meets at 11 a.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month inside the library to show, tell, learn and socialize.
At the April meeting, ladies gathered 无毛视频檙ound a conference table, trying to determine what was depicted on a tiny button (hummingbird, perhaps?) before opening 无毛视频淭he Complete Button Book,无毛视频� a reference title used that day to study head buttons, or portrait buttons.
Meetings often are a mix of education 无毛视频� sometimes, members or guests deliver presentations 无毛视频� question-and-answer sessions that help folks dive deeper into their own collections, crafting (members create lovely jewelry and home d茅cor from buttons) and chatting.
无毛视频淚 saw an article 无毛视频� that they were starting a button club what, seven, eight years ago. I had just retired and was looking for something to do,无毛视频� said Cathy Snyder, of Bethel Park. 无毛视频淎nd here I am.无毛视频�
Snyder, who has used her buttons for everything from handmade jewelry to a lovely piece of framed wall art, said the most fascinating aspect of buttons, for her, is their history.
Indeed, to trace the button无毛视频檚 history is in a way to follow the rise and fall of empires, fashion and art trends.
The earliest buttons date to about 2,000 B.C. They were discovered in the Indus Valley (now Pakistan) and made from shells. Big, decorative buttons fastened to material were fashionable in Ancient Rome, while ancient Egyptians secured clothing with cloth buttons.
Throughout history, buttons have been hand- and machine-crafted from every material imaginable 无毛视频� bone, pewter, tin and wood among them 无毛视频� and designed to be plain, to share status, to tell stories and to commemorate history. And while the button has evolved through the ages, it wasn无毛视频檛 until the Middle Ages that buttons in the modern sense emerged.
无毛视频淭here was an article on the most important inventions of all time, and they had the button in there. I would have to say it wasn无毛视频檛 the button 无毛视频� it was the button hole. The button didn无毛视频檛 become a button until the button hole came around,无毛视频� said Gina Powers, a New Kensington resident and president of the Keystone Button Club. 无毛视频淪ome genius invented the button hole, and then they really took off as actual buttons as we know now.无毛视频�
Middle Age fashion introduced tighter clothing, made possible through buttoning. The more buttons on a garment, the tighter the fit.
无毛视频淚n Europe, they became so popular that they had to put out laws concerning the use of buttons. People of a certain class were allowed to wear so many buttons, and if you did not have enough money, you were not allowed to wear buttons at all,无毛视频� Powers said.
Queen Victoria famously mourned her beloved Prince Albert for 40 years, and often decorated her black dresses with black glass buttons, which trended during her lifetime and today make lovely additions to button collections.
无毛视频淎 lot of us do it because it无毛视频檚 affordable art,无毛视频� said Susie Smith, public relations for the National Button Society, which includes most U.S. clubs and several in Canada, where Smith lives. 无毛视频淵ou can buy a really nice button for $30 or you can buy a really nice button for $2, or you can buy a really, really nice button for $2,000.无毛视频�
Like Snyder, Smith finds the history of buttons fascinating, and appreciates learning world history through buttons. Once, Smith scored a free card of six buttons on the condition she research and present her findings on the buttons.
The buttons were labeled Manton patent, with which Smith was unfamiliar.
无毛视频淚 did absolutely nothing for six months,无毛视频� Smith laughed.
Then, a colleague found a leather powder horn from Fort Henry in his family无毛视频檚 heirlooms and asked Smith to donate it to the fort. The horn belonged to William S. Manton, master armorer at the fort in 1850, and came with a genealogy book.
无毛视频淚 was sitting reading the book; sure enough, page four, there it was. John S. Manton was the man无毛视频檚 father, and he started the Manton Button Company in England,无毛视频� Smith said. 无毛视频淥nce you get started 无毛视频ξ廾悠禎
Button collecting is as involved or casual as individuals desire. Powers laughed that her mother and aunt 无毛视频渨easeled me into it,无毛视频� when they requested she drive them to their meetings.
无毛视频淚 came to love (buttons). When somebody starts coming along, it无毛视频檚 inevitable there无毛视频檚 something that无毛视频檚 going to catch your eye or your interest. It无毛视频檚 accessible, it无毛视频檚 affordable, it covers every art form you can imagine,无毛视频� she said. 无毛视频淚t can take you a lot of places and you can meet a lot of people, (or) you can just be the kind of collector that just collects buttons at home by yourself.无毛视频�
Which is what Marie Trossman, of North Strabane, does.
无毛视频淢y mother was a sewer, so she always was buying fabric and 无毛视频� buttons and zippers and things. Anything that was left over from a project, she had a little tin box where she kept those things. Any time you bought clothing, an extra button was attached; you better save that,无毛视频� said Trossman. 无毛视频淛ust out of habit of growing up with that, I started doing that.无毛视频�
When her parents passed away last year, Trossman, who doesn无毛视频檛 sew much these days and rarely pulled out her button collection, found her mom无毛视频檚 collection; memories of working on projects alongside her mom floated through Trossman无毛视频檚 mind, and she couldn无毛视频檛 part with the tin filled to brimming with buttons.
无毛视频淢y one niece took her sewing machine. I无毛视频檓 like, can I have the button collection? There无毛视频檚 certain things from your past you just don无毛视频檛 want to let go of,无毛视频� Trossman said. 无毛视频淚t brings you bonding to your memories. When my kids were little and we would go visit my mom, my kids were fascinated by the buttons. My mom would play little games with them, sort by color. There are times when I think it无毛视频檚 interesting to look at designs and styles of things. Looking at some of the styles of the buttons, you can see where it无毛视频檚 无毛视频�70s clothing versus 无毛视频�80s. I can recall certain things my mom sewed and used the buttons for. Some of my nieces picked out some really cool designed ones. It was a really cool memory keepsake for them.无毛视频�
Also a neat keepsake: Beverly Calvert无毛视频檚 button lamp, an eclectic piece of home d茅cor made from buttons collecting dust in a box.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 kind of quirky and old-fashioned,无毛视频� said Calvert, of Washington. 无毛视频淚 was moving to a new place and I was going to have a red, white and blue room. I needed a lamp to put beside the bed and I got the idea to make it out of a canning jar and a light kit. I took the buttons that I had in my sewing box that I无毛视频檝e had for years 无毛视频� I don无毛视频檛 know where they came from, I just kind of accumulated them 无毛视频� and I decided to fill it up with the buttons.无毛视频�
The lamp has stood proudly, lighting Calvert无毛视频檚 guest room, for nearly two decades. Calvert chose her buttons carefully, picking out those with Americana flair.
Those buttons are the lamp无毛视频檚 signature, an homage to designers who use unique buttons to brand their garments. Buttons are functional fashion, a bridge between past and present, a history lesson and a memory 无毛视频� and those interested in learning more about their buttons are welcome to attend a Bethel Park Button Club meeting, the last Wednesday of the month at BPPL.
For more information on, or to join, the Keystone Button Club, visit https://keystonebuttonclub.com/.
Learn more about the National Button Society online at https://www.nationalbuttonsociety.org/.