I have been sitting this afternoon like a woman in occupational therapy, sorting buttons. I am mentally working on some Button Upgrades. I am a big fan of the Button Upgrade.
For instance, I bought this lovely little cashmere soft blended polyester cardigan and it arrived to me (for the 3-ish bucks I paid or it) adorned with those fake pearl kind of buttons where you can scratch off the pearliness if you sneeze or bump into something or scratch it off with your fingernail. In a word: cheap.
So I did a Button Upgrade.
Happy glass buttons.
Much. Much. Cuter. I know--you're nodding. So am I. I was shooting for a Fancy Old Lady Out On the Town to the BookFair and Wine Sale sort of look. And I think I nailed it.
I have also recently bought this sueded jacket for my standard $2.95 investment and am deciding right now what sort of BU to execute upon it in order to make it Better Than It Is. Its current buttons are not only falling off, they're not as cute as the jacket.
This is the BEFORE:
And I'm really really concentrating, because while it's true that sewing on buttons on is not anything that require a master's degree, there are a number of ways to go wrong with this move:
Pitfall #1: Heavy-Handed Contrast
I am as tempted as the next girl to put pink buttons on a green cardigan, and while it's true that this would make me giggle because I did live through the early eighties in a state where cyndi lauper's tall hair and neon underwear had not yet arrived and the whole place was surrounded with grosgrain pink and white polka dot ribbon and plaid shorts and, well, green cardigans with pink buttons. And so doing this again would make me giggle in a weird anti-nostalgia sort of way.
But then I would never wear it. Because, as a friend recently said to me about my living room furniture: Maybe it doesn't all have to be funny.
If you're shooting to truly upgrade a thrifted garment with buttons, sometimes less really is more. (Even though I rarely find that to be true in life.) Buttons that match the fabric or are only slightly off a skoshe from the color are probably the way to go so that you don't avoid wearing it or--worse---wear the thing with a bold Look I Upgraded This With Buttons sort of message to the world.
Pitfall #2: Over Fancification
This is the wrong move where you take a medium sort of looking garment and add your favorite favorite ever buttons that sparkle and shine and are handmade from glass found in the south of France and handed down to you by your great Aunt. And you think that they will help your otherwise sort of mediumly attractive blouse/sweater/purse/jacket/jeans/jacket.
Turns out this doesn't work. It's happened to me. I have these cool buttons that were my dad's military buttons. They're not even shiny. They're just really cool.
But as it turns out, no button is cool enough to save a mediumly-ugly garment.
Often with Pitfall #2 the situation can be saved. A non-ugly garment is often sort of a workhorse kind of garment, so it just needs not to be outshined by mismatchingly fancy buttons. It sort of needs the equivalent of our good girlfriends who promise not to dress up more than we do when we go out to the movies. It just needs to be matched at its current, perfectly medium Cuteness Level.
Which leaves me to the last way you can go wrong . .
Pitfall #3: Denial that the Garment You Began With is Truly Ugly and Can't Be Fixed
This can sound like Pitfall #2, but it's actually worse.
Pitfall #3 happens when you think you can redeem something that is, well, unsaveable. And if you're a hardcore like yours truly, its very, very easy to scoop up clothes that you think are fixable and saveable and better-able.
For instance, those nice happy Old Lady Out on the Town Etc. Etc. glass buttons that I used to gussy up the cream colored cardigan were my second attempt at BU-ing with them. I first attached them to a dirty-cream polyester blouse whose sleeves were too short for me and whose particul grade and weight of polyester were both scratch and boldly unbreathable. And also the shirt was too small for me. And also the seams in the shirt were unfinished.
Turns out some things are just ugly. Even if they are cheap.
And even if you're superhuman and know how to sew on a button. Happy upgrading.
