What is a button?

Buttons accompany a person throughout his life. These objects are small and unnoticeable, and therefore neither parents nor teachers tell children about them. It's time to talk about what they are, what their purpose is and their varieties. Read about all this below.

What is a button?

An accessory that is used to fasten clothing and connects parts of the product through a loop is called a button. Such accessories are used in sewing, leather goods, textiles, and footwear. Interesting clasps serve as elements of necklaces and other jewelry. Decorating the interiors of rooms using accessories on soft pillows and wall panels is in fashion.

Historical reference

The first primitive fasteners were made of clay and metal. They were used long before the advent of our era. A little later, people began to use shells of sea mollusks as accessories. Buttons became most widespread in the 13th century in medieval Germany. They began to be made from various expensive materials - gold, silver, precious stones, ivory. There could be more than a hundred exquisite examples of them on the clothes of that time.

Initially, such jewelry was the prerogative of men's suits. Soon women also acquired similar luxurious items. It is believed that men dressed themselves, so the buttons were fastened on the right side of the caftan. Rich women had maids who found it easier and faster to fasten their clothes, where accessories were sewn on the left side. Hence the difference in the place where they are sewn on the clothes of men and women.

Purpose of the button

Its main function is to connect and hold clothing parts. Without reliable fixation of parts of a shirt or coat, it is difficult to imagine modern clothing. But the button did not always play only this role. At first in Rus' it was in the form of a hollow weight filled with metal fines and did not serve as a fastener.

In men's and then women's clothing, it was primarily an original decoration. Buttons were made from precious metals and natural stones. Corals, pearls, amber - everything was used to make accessories. They demonstrated the wealth and high social status of their owner.

One of the functions of the fittings is informative.. A specially made button is a sign of belonging to a certain profession, branch of the military, or company. In the Russian Empire, buttons identified the department, ministry, military structure or educational institution in which the owner of the uniform served or studied.

What are they made of?

Dozens of workers work in factories to create buttons: craftsmen, pressers, molders. The process of making accessories cannot be called very fast: To receive a batch of fasteners, the work of specialists is not interrupted for two shifts.

Buttons are usually made from plastic resins, but also metal, wood, glass, porcelain, and mother-of-pearl are common. There are accessories made of amber, leather, bone, ebonite.

The most common are plastic. The manufacturing method can be stamping, casting, pressing, machining, assembly.

What are they?

The most typical type of button is a round flat shape, but they also come in others:

• square;
• rectangular;
• oval;
• triangular;
• trapezoidal;
• cylindrical;
• spherical;
• convex;
• complex shapes (for example, in the form of a heart, an apple, a flower).

All accessories are attached to clothing or shoes using threads. To do this, two or four holes are made in the workpiece during production, sometimes there are three. Another option for attaching the accessory is through a hole in the leg. This fastener has a more interesting look, the fastening hole is hidden under the button, and on top there can be either a flat surface of one color, or a multi-colored ornament or a complex texture.

Buttons are divided into linen, suit, coat, dress and blouse, trouser, shirt buttons. The smallest sizes are for linen fasteners, the largest are for those intended for outerwear.

Important! The fittings can not only be sewn to the product, but also attached using a tongue-and-groove device, which has been connecting parts of denim items for several decades. These are metal buttons with rivets.

There are fasteners that are attached to clothing with a narrow strip of leather or tape. Instead of four holes, they have elongated holes. A type of such button is called slit canadian. This accessory always looks very stylish and is a decoration of the outfit.

Button in magic

In Rus', the name of the accessory was consonant with the word “scare.” Initially, the object, which serves as a clasp in modern times, served as an amulet that protected its owner from evil spirits and scared them away from the owner. It was believed that a button would help avoid trouble when meeting a black cat, and finding it on the way would bring great luck and joy..

Important! With the help of an accessory fixed in a special way, women “sewed” their loved one to themselves. The clasp played the role of a love spell.

There are popular beliefs that special methods of attaching fittings near the heart can attract wealth to the home, make the owner healthy, rich and loved, and fulfill many of his desires. To do this, fasteners with four holes were sewn in the shape of a square, an hourglass, the letter I or Z, and in other ways.

Women's, men's, children's - differences

Conventionally, buttons are divided according to gender and age:

• men's clasps have a modest appearance, discreet colors, traditional design;
• women's accessories are distinguished by a more varied shape, the presence of a wide range of colors, and in terms of design, such products can sometimes be classified as small works of art;
• Children's buttons can come in a variety of incredible sizes, colors and designs. Two or three bright flowers instead of a fastener on a blouse look cute in a girl’s wardrobe, and several clippers fastening a shirt will become the pride of the baby.