Wednesday, October 27

the button lady





Buttons as far as the eye could see! As a vintage seller I am often finding gorgeous garments that are missing buttons, and it's a pretty fun thing to get to replace buttons on a garment with buttons you choose. I always use vintage buttons as replacements so imagine how excited I was to learn that the button capital is right here in my town. Crazy! The shop is small, but super well-organized and run by the basically the Yoda-lady of buttons. She knows everything about them and she has very open opinions about what buttons look good with what, and even will offer fashion advice to those who seem to need (sometimes unbeknownst to them) it.  Duff and I spent at least an hour there one morning and there was a lot of gasping over the Victorian buttons. I brought in garments and chose the perfect buttons, Duff came away with new buttons on her coat since the Button Lady thought the ones that were on her coat were, "a poor choice", so from across the room she hawk-eyed the perfect set up buttons to put on to the coat, it was like she had X-ray vision. Apparently, the buttons in the shop are just the ones she sells and she has about that much in her "personal collection", yeah, wow.

27 comments:

blue moss said...

gasp....think i would move in!!
love all those buttons
michelle

Erica! said...

Amazing! I have such a love for buttons & I seem to collect them. However I rarely put them to use... LOL.

<3erica

Jean Jean Vintage said...

Oh you really captured that place perfectly! I continue to love the Button Lady's selection for my coat :)

Petals said...

Wow. It's like a beautiful dream.

Victoria / Justice Pirate said...

did you go to the one museum in Maine (by Thorndike. . maybe in that town) where they have lots of dolls, stoves, musical instruments, and a whole button room collection? this reminded me of it. My one best friend who lives in Maine's grandmother collected them for decades and that is her museum (with her husband). I definitely recommend checking it out but I don't know what it is called or anything or how far it is.

Karen/Small Earth Vintage said...

Gorgeous--what eye candy all those buttons are!

I love that that shop exists, and that she does "button readings."

samantha ramage said...

wow! this place is serious! i went to windsor buttons a while back and was surprised how few buttons they actually have! where is this place?

xo
sami

oh dear watson said...

This is incredible.... I would love to visit all those buttons..

Anonymous said...

Treasure!!! Our shop is right next to the "Button Emporium" and I have to MAKE myself not go in there every single day... very handy for repair work; but very bad for my already bursting button jar. Definitely a weakness of mine. I think I have to go in today after this post - I'm drooling!

Gigi said...

Wow, I could spend all day in that place looking at all those pretty buttons!

Pamela - Chocolate for the Soul said...

Wow, Wow, and MORE WOW!!! Your photos are gorgeous. I'm so excited just looking at the photos.......don't know if I could STAND the excitement if I were there in person!

French Press Knits said...

I visited the button lady last year when I was searching for buttons to put on my slippers- such a fun place!

mituKatie said...

that is absolutely amazing. i love people with such niche passions!

Kestrel said...

Wow - what an amazing shop. I think I wouldn't know where to start looking if I went in there, too much choice!

Ms.Tips said...

AMAZING! I am totally jealous, I want to go visit this shop!! I wonder how many buttons she has in her personal collection??

Anjali said...

Oh my gosh, this looks like heaven. Thank you for sharing Lauren :)

thatdamngreendress said...

drooling! vintage buttons make great brooches too!!

Unknown said...

dear lord!

that is like button heaven for me! i have a pretty extensive collection as well, and right now, a friend of mine is working on starting a button "recycling" project to create jobs for autistic people (you know how awesome they are with sorting and organizing!) If you're interested in her project look here (I hope it's okay to post the link, but BUTTONS (and any project involving them) are very important to me :)

http://wettbewerb.entrepreneurship.de/knopfe-fur-asperger-autisten-arbeitsplatze

I will be drooling over these pictures all night. Button porn...

Valerie said...

lovely buttons! gosh, how I'd want a buttonselling Yoda-lady around here, that would be super awesome!

DK said...

Mademoiselle Chaos sent me over here from her blog today. Oh, my goodness, this is heaven! Thank you for the wonderful photos and blog. Since I;m new here and cursory browsing around hasn't found me the answer yet, where is this place? I absolutely have to go some time.

Sarsaparilla said...

Mademoiselle Chaos described your photos as "button porn." I agree!

I wish there was a Button Lady like this in my town (St. Paul, Minn.) - I've got a couple of vintage jackets that need some help.

You have a fantastic blog! - Casey's Elegant Musings tipped me off.

Stephanie said...

ha ha ha!!! I love the Button Lady! I've been there several times, and always need to prep myself for some of her "words of wisdom". She once told me that there was interest in making a documentary about her. She is quirky, but like you said, she always pulls out the perfect buttons for whatever project you're working on.

For vintage buttons, she not only has an outstanding collection, but the prices are good too!

Sam said...

WOW! That place looks absolutely amazing... and you took gorgeous pictures. :) Makes me want to go on an adventure...

Natalia said...

I hope they DO make that documentary. I would love to watch it!

נבו said...

wow,i love it!!!

Unknown said...

oh. wow!... am now lost for words...!

Unknown said...

what. how have i never been here?

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