The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of Clothes

by Wilfred Mark Webb

Buttons have from time to time done a great deal in the way of decorating clothes, in addition to the part which they have played as fastenings. We saw in an earlier chapter how many of our buttons, which are now only ornamental, were once of use, and any history of costume which goes into details will show how largely, superfluous buttons have figured as ornaments. The older Quakers, of course, refused to wear any buttons that were not needful, and brought down upon them the criticisms of Cobbett, who referred to other things which they lacked besides buttons. Although at the present time we may be inclined to appreciate some of our purposeless buttons, on account of their historic associations, we cannot say the same for many of those which now appear on ladies’ dresses. There is little sense in having on the front of a bodice a series of buttons of which the first member is very large and the last very small, with the others graduated in size between them, while there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in many other individual buttons or patches of them which are dotted here and there over the costume. It is not as if these additions were really handsome. Not long ago they looked as if the wearer had saved up all her old glove buttons, and then had sewed them to her frock, for they were quite tiny and made of brass. Now, though they are larger, they are merely covered with the cloth of which the dress is made and are usually quite plain.

In some cases buttons show great beauty of design, and for this reason, if not on account of the material of which they are made, may be exceedingly valuable.

Bearing on the antiquity of buttons, we may say that they are found among prehistoric remains in this country, and though they were foreign to the ancient Egyptians, we learn (through the kindness of Professor Flinders Petrie) that engraved buttons or seals were usual from the sixth to the nineteenth dynasty, probably among foreign immigrants, for the designs are never true Egyptian. In the present year, 1907, Professor Petrie found a cornelian button with a copper shank which belongs to the twelfth dynasty.

The use of flowers, whether artificial or natural, on the person, and more particularly the wearing of feathers, also takes us back to the primitive instinct of early or uncivilized man.

In our own country the custom of wearing feathers is an exceedingly old one. The single upright specimens worn by the knights of the fourteenth century have been characterized as being preposterous in size. The plumes afterwards worn in helmets in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were also immense. In 1606, according to Nichol’s “Progresses,” on the occasion of the visit of Christian IV, some of the knights “wore strange feathers of rich and great esteem which they called Birdes of Paradice,” and, unfortunately, ladies of the present day wear them still. In the reign of Edward IV, we learn, only men, practically speaking, wore feathers. They still survive in the army, but otherwise in the twentieth century, with the exception of an occasional small and modest instance amongst civilians, the wearing of plumes is confined to ladies.

Many flowers and feathers are exceedingly beautiful, and from an artistic point of view there seems little reason why we should allow civilization to sweep them away. We are quiet and colourless in our clothing, and if we are not careful the same element of dulness may creep into our lives. At the same time, however, to wear feathers which can only be obtained at the cost of cruelty or of depriving others of the sight of beautiful birds, or, again, of bringing any species to extinction, savours too much of barbarousness and thoughtlessness to be in any way condoned.

Ostriches are reared for their feathers, and the plumage of many birds that are killed for food is always at hand.

Men have much less opportunity now of showing any great individuality in their dress than heretofore, but sometimes they may be known by always wearing a buttonhole, even if that does not always consist of the same kind of bloom. The language of flowers, though now seemingly considered to be a dead letter, was hardly invented for nothing.

Of the brooch and its connection with the safety-pin we have already spoken. In many ornaments we find remnants of religious ideas; for instance, all brooches showing a crescent pattern or bearing the design of a hand are connected with the old phallic worship. The cross, it may be mentioned, is of much more ancient origin than Christianity, and is connected intimately with the swastika or fylfot.