Zippers and snaps? Them's fightin' words to button lovers -- an object which has its band of fans. (There's no real word that we know of for buttonphiles, but the fear of buttons is called koumpounophobia.)
For the non-koumpounophobic, button central is Tender Buttons, which has shops in New York and Chicago. The fasteners come in an astonishing variety of colors, shapes, materials: everything from plastic to crystal to carved wood. Millicent Safro and Diana Epstein, who founded the store, wrote the book on buttons, called -- wait for it -- Buttons. What's most surprising is how much history is encapsulated into these small discs.
Tender Buttons stores are at 143 E. 62nd St. in NYC, 212.758.7004 and 946 N. Rush in Chicago, 312.337.7033.
One last note: buttons get their own (online) museum called Buttonarium, which features hundreds of them in dozens of categories, with short descriptions.
written on Tuesday May 8, 2007
fasteners,
ornaments,
buttons.
