Today, the presence of buttons on any piece of clothing doesn’t lead to any assumptions about the wearer’s potential affluence (the type of material used to create the button, on the other hand, might still lead to similar conversations, but that’s a topic for another time).
Given commercialization and the relative ease involved in producing the object, in fact, buttons are just about everywhere in 2024.
What are less common, if not downright absent, though, are the sort of handmaidens that clothing designers were taking into account when designing garments in the past. Why, then, are buttons still lined up differently for men and women?
“In the 19th century buttons were incorporated more in everyday women’s clothing due to advances in sewing technology,” Hicks explained. “The difference in placement between menswear and womenswear is essentially a holdover from the 13th century that has never been corrected. Designers are creating new looks [based] on old patterns.”
The idea that the past informs the present despite the lack of functional needs resonates with Liebenberg, as well. “There’s no concrete evidence as to why [this is still the case],” he said, before theorizing that fashion’s reliance on tradition might be one of the culprits.
“Once a particular style or feature becomes standardized, it tends to continue,” he noted. “Although style evolves, the general patterns remain the same.”
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