Together with Modigliani and a grand staircase, couture design and plants with white flowers, I'm a sucker for a good byline and Le Musée des Arts décoratifs has a beauty -
"The Beautiful in the Useful"
James, the architectural historian from New York City recommended the exhibition 'Déboutonner La Mode' and it was very good. Shown for the first time, a collection of 3,000 buttons as well as more than 100 male and female garments including those by emblematic couturiers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Photography was difficult as the presentation space was completely black and flash was not permitted. Acquired in 2012, this collection has been classified as a work of major heritage interest by the commission on national treasures. (Only in France could you have such a committee.) The priceless materials and skills involved in making these pieces during the 18thC, 19thC and 20thC make them objets d'art.
They were produced by artisans ranging from embroiderers, soft furnishers, glass makers, ceramicists and jewellers to silversmiths.
Originally buttons were only used on men's clothing. And surprise, surprise, they were used to denote social position, wealth and power. It was therefore unwise to have more buttons on one's jacket than the king (or the duke or the general or one's employer) had on his.
Men liked buttons. They buttonned their spats ....
As well as their boots.
I can't remember exactly when buttons were adopted for women's fashion, but I do remember that they were initially used only for rear fastening, meaning that one had to have a maid or a dresser in order to have buttons.
It was some time before buttons appeared on the front of dresses. Buttons on the front meant that one could dress oneself. It also meant that the middle classes and even lower, could have buttons and a whole new industry was born.
Things even got frivolous.
Aren't they beautiful? The next photo shows the "buttoner" like a crochet hook for managing all those buttons.
My grandma, born in 1889, when looking at my trendy clothing in the 1960's, used to say " But Vivienne, that went out with button-up boots!" She'd have been really surprised at these button-up stilettos.
Mary Poppins had buttons.
Buttons and sparkles for the opera.
Buttons before modern corsetry changed the female shape.
The magic of Schiaparelli with multi coloured bird buttons.
More Schiaparelli, this time with buttons on collar and pockets.
Big red buttons - I forget the designer.
Who else but Chanel? She had a basic rule of practicality - "There will be no button without a buttonhole".
So we know that this is not a Chanel with all of those 'decoration only' buttons on the sleeves.
Penelope Cruz in Karl Lagerfeld - pearls beautifully melded with buttons.
The beautiful in the useful. Indeed!
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