Metal Buttons are used for their strength, beauty and variety in color and design. For heavy duty work pants you don’t want fine fabrics and decorative buttons; when Levi Strauss first introduced his work pants made of heavy canvas and reinforced with rivets they were not made for style or comfort as much as they were meant to hold up to tough conditions. His use of metal buttons was sheer practicality. Today you see variations on those metal buttons are still in use.
Metal buttons are more often thought of as decorative in today’s fashion designs, used extensively on coats and jackets where they offer a classic and even quasi-military look or can add an aura of glamor and luxury. Even some plastic buttons have a metallic finish to offer the look of metal at a lower cost and lighter weight.
Like plastic buttons, metal buttons come with either two or four holes or may have a shank for attaching them. Metal Buttons are most commonly made by stamping the design into metal which is then formed and attached to the base. They may be cast but that is a much more expensive process and for that reason cast metal buttons are rare.
As we get our buttons organized and classified we will be adding a gallery of various buttons, the metal buttons will probably be the first in our gallery as there are fewer in the collection. Any of our buttons can be bought to complete a sewing or handcraft project.