Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1886-05-19
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Odd Fashion In Buttons.

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New York Tribune: Buttons are
now as much part of the makeup of
dress as the cloth ITSELF" dealer
said to reporter yesterday" aud as
much care is exercised in their selection
as in the cutting and fitting of the gar
ment. The colors must harmonic with
that of the goods to the shade, and in
size the buttons must correspond with
the general style of the dress and the
toilet which follows. On street cos
tunes of rough imported cloth, which
have lately come into fashion, buttons
as large as silver half dollar are used.
They are mostly of bronze, decorated
with various designs, and expensive,
Some are made of shell, and are va
riegated and brilliant. The decorations
on the bronze buttons are landscapes.
heads, of various historical person.
ages, and horticultural designs. There
are still others that are made in imita-
ton of cameo, and others are manu-
featured from apccular mixture of gilt
and silver. OF course these styles of
buttons would never do for house cos
TUNES, but are quite appropriate on the
street on heavy garments. The old
style buttons, which were once so fash
ionable, are now used on black silk
suits. Women of quiet taste, however,
always prefer fiat, silk covered buttons
and small crochet buttons. School
girls affect large gilt buttons, but the
handsome bronze buttons are the rage
and will no doubt, continue to be so
for some time.
'1n looking back over my stock ten,
fifteen. twenty, and twenty-five years
ago, find many curious styles of but
tons which were in use at those periods.
The buttons used among the rich twen-
ty-tive years ago were made of metal,
mostly in imitation of gold and silver.
In still earlier days it was the custom
to make buttons out of silver and gold
pieces. but that was long before my
day in the business, and I haven't any
relics of that time. Chintz and calico
dresses were profusely decorated with
buttons of agate as large as a silver
dollar, among which red and purple
predominated. Then there were the
small bronze horn buttons, which be-
came popular and were much worn by
the bellies of the period. There was
also about this time large button of
solid mother of pearl. Then came
glass buttons of peculiar shapes, nickel
buttons, with designs of stars and other
| figures upon them, and also large brass
buttons, with which dresses were pro-
fusely trimmed. Cone-shaped, white
porcelain buttons were in vogue at one
time, and the more pointed they were
the more fashionable they were con-
sidered.
"Rrass buttons shaped as acorns,
buttons of brass open work, with red
Innings, and myraid of other odd de-
signs were among the styles worn
twenty-five years ago. A little later
were called, came into use, and were
sewed close together on the front of a
dress. About the same time the metal
buttons were made smaller, and the
glass and porcelain ones shared the
same fate. The craze for small but
tons became as great as it had former
ly been for the large ones. Then it be-
came the fashion to initiate fruits and
clusters of grapes in buttons. These
buttons were worn in large lunches on
the front of ladies' suits and were al
most as tempting as the fruit itself, the
limitations were so perfect. jet but
tons superseded these and were worn
in various shapes, but usually in The
form of long black worm: They
were used with heavy braided plastrons
and were, in their day, considered
Just the thing