The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore

by Lynn Knight

I used to love the rattle and whoosh of my grandma’s buttons as they scattered from their Quality Street tin. An inlaid wooden chest the size of a shoe box holds Lynn Knight’s button collection. A collection that has been passed down through three generations of a chunky sixties-era toggle from a favourite coat, three tiny pearl buttons from her mother’s first dress after she was adopted as a baby, a jet button from a time of Victorian mourning. Each button tells a story. ‘They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us’ said Virginia Woolf of clothes. The Button Box traces the story of women at home and in work from pre-First World War domesticity, through the first clerical girls in silk blouses, to the delights of beading and glamour in the thirties to short skirts and sexual liberation in the sixties.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Womens, Fashion, Fashion History, 20th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2016

Reviews

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Do women still have a button box or tin lurking in a cupboard or drawer somewhere?

I've used the word 'women' deliberately - a sewing basket complete with button tin is such a feminine image even though my own husband always sews on any buttons that come adrift on his shirts etc.......

Lynn Knight has had the excellent idea of using her grandma's old Quality Street button tin as the basis for her book. Each chapter is headed by a different button and this is used as a starting point to discuss the garment it originally came from.

This in turn leads to various discussions on the history of women's clothing and their changing lives and includes memories of Knight's childhood and the female relatives she grew up surrounded by.

The book has a beautiful frontispiece but then has no illustrations whatsoever apart from the beginning of each chapter where there is a small black and white sketch of each button being discussed. Such a book cries out for pictures - I'd have loves to have seen some 'proper' shots of the buttons, or indeed pictures of some of the garments still in Knight's possession.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle kind of sums this book up: “The story of women in the 20th century, told through the clothes they wore”. It covers the wars, the periods when women went to work and when they were turned back out of the work force, suffragettes and suffragists, the New Look… It’s not my usual area of interest, but Lynn Knight makes this about more than fashion — it’s about how fashion highlighted the preoccupations of women and what it said about their status and expectations.

I found it really restful and, yes, interesting — I love the concept of rummaging through a family button box to look at past garments and fashions. It makes me wish I’d dug through some of my grandmother’s stuff sometimes. I think even my mother has some odd buttons and so on lying around; in a way, ready-made clothes being such a thing has cut my generation (and somewhat the previous generation) off from the continuity with family we used to have through rag bags and button boxes. That’s not all a bad thing, but I loved the anecdotes from Knight about playing shop with the buttons for payment, the buttons that reminded her of home made clothes…

If you’re a fan of the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee, you’ll probably love this. If you’re a fan of microhistory, again, it’s probably up your street. And if you need something restful to remind you of a childhood playing with buttons and doll houses, well, it might also be for you.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Bronagh Miskelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do you have a button box or trailed your hand through one belonging to an older relative picking out fascinating treasures? A diamante clasp, a giant colourful disc or a intricate structure with brass filigree over colour - each has a history and points to a particular activity or period.
Lynn Knight dips into her own button box and the stories behind her treasures allow her to present a social history (mainly of women) of the 20th century up to the 1970s.
For a pure student of social history, the stories her present great detail on how women's lives changed over 70-odd years with information on earnings, clothes costs and the workplace as well as the home.
If like me you share with the author a family history rich with dressmakers and well-dressed aunts, and a box containing buttons cut from outfits and reused (some for close to a century), this is also quite an emotional read. As Knight tells the stories of her own family and the memories the buttons evoke, I often found myself thinking about particular button in our family boxes, old photographs and family stories. On almost the last page Knight refers to a jacket of her mother's in the 1960s and how daring it was to choose a trouser suit and I could see my own mother in her red many buttoned suit.
This is a book you can dip into, each chapter is self contained around a topic and gives plenty to think about. I also find myself flicking through for the pages showing clothing costs in different eras and the other domestic information and magazine extracts.
Whether you are fascinated by fashion (I'm a knitwear designer among other things) or want to learn more about domestic life in the 20th century , there is much to draw you into this book.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! I know I've only given it 4 stars (I'll explain why later!) But honestly I just couldn't get enough.

As someone who loves fashion and also social history, I loved how this book brings the two together. Exploring how fashion changed but also the social impact it had and the influence of social life on fashion choices.

The story includes lots and lots of quotes, infarct almost every chapter includes one or two. Some are real people and their stories whilst others are pulled from books written at and about the time. I don't dislike quotes however I do think that there were a few to many for me personally. I also felt some became a little repetitive and weren't always needed. Hence the 4 stars.

I would say that if you are a fashion historian or even a social historian researching fashion revelution in detail this probably won't be very informative. However if like me you just enjoy reading, discovering and learning about how social and fashion developments happend then this is definitely a book for you!!

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. Lynn Knight takes us on a journey through her grandmother's button box, using each button as a focus to explore the lives of the women in her own family through fashion and the clothes they were, and extending that out to the lives of women in general through the social history of clothing. It is fascinating and absorbing. She quotes lots of writers along the way, some of whom I have loved and read myself, and some of whom I shall seek out thanks to her.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a bit niche but I loved this history of women's fashion and lives - from the Edwardian era until the 1970s - told through a button box, each chapter illustrated by one button representative of its time, and stories from the author's family. There's a lot about women rights, women entering the workforce, women's economic power (the thought that 1/3 of a working woman's salary was going to clothes is incredible) and the clothes they wore. I really enjoyed this book and through the novels Knight quotes, I have noted many titles I'd like to read next.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the cover of this - which is what attracted me to it.

Quite interesting, buttons in her sewing box, from old clothes from relatives etc. and she discussed fashions of those times etc.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really very interesting book about the history of fashion and the evolution of women's lives. It took me a while to settle into this book, which i think is because I had an idea it would be more about the history of each button and the associated garment, rather than a more generalised history. It really should be titled the other way around: "Lifting the Lid on Women's Lives: The Button Box". This is also a book which is crying out for a couple of colour insert pages with pictures of the buttons and maybe some of the fashions; the little black and white button pictures were just not enough. All that said, this was still a very enjoyable book.

[Dawn Abey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!
A well written insight into women’s lives through the clothes they wore.
As a child in the 1970s I too would play with my grandmas button tin (she was another Annie!)
In due course I inherited the button tin and I’m now a seamstress; I fully relate to Lynn’s fascination with buttons and the stories they could tell.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I don't have a sewing bone in my body, but the love of clothes and history in this book was a joy to read. It also enabled me to add other books to my already large reading list. If you love fashion and or history, I can't recommend this book enough.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A revue of women's clothes and their lives at home and at work. The author takes us through women's costumes from 1900 through the 1970s using the buttons in her grandmother's button box.

[Verity W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Button Box is an examination on the changing lives of women through the 20th century, using the contents of the author's button box, which contains items owned by her mother and her grandmother as well as from her own clothes gone by. From Victorian mourning jewellery through to Biba and the 70s, Lynn Knight uses buttons and buckles to trace the evolution of female life in a century that saw huge changes as women started to have the ability to have a life beyond the domestic and careers became an option - rather than working until marriage - or sitting at home waiting for marriage to come to you depending on your class. 

As an avid reader of books written or set pre-1950, I found the sections on the realities of women's wardrobes and clothing in those periods absolutely fascinating. The obsession with the ability to sew in my beloved boarding school stories - and the anger of the teachers when a pupil got a fresh tunic covered in ink - come into sharper focus when you realise exactly how small the children's wardrobes likely were, as well as the struggles that parents must have had to find the money for all the clothes their boarders needed. My grandma used to tell stories of some of her schoolmates not having proper shoes, or having carried a baked potato to school to keep their hands warm en route and then eating it for lunch, but when you're little it doesn't really sink in. During the early stages of the book I found myself thinking - more than once - of my wardrobe full of clothes and my easy ability to buy more and feeling lucky but also guilty.

Knight is also able to talk at length about the importance of home dressmakers and home dress making - which was also fascinating. My mum did some sewing (still does really) but mostly nice extras - like the strawberry patterned kaftan she made for me (with a little help from me!) when i was about 10. My mother in law made me a pinafore apron for Christmas (it's amazing) and is helping me with a Mary Quant design the V&A published more than a year ago before the virus hit, but it's all recreational stuff - it's not out of necessity. And the book is full of little insights - like women in the era before reliable contraception sitting downstairs doing their darning in the hope that by the time they got to bed their husbands would be asleep. And on top of everything else, it would definitely make a useful addition to the research shelf of any author writing books set in the first half of the twentieth century.

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author selects from her button box containing an accumulation of items from several generations and uses them to write a history of how women’s lives changed in the 20th century and how the clothes they wore reflected it. To do this, she refers to umpteen sources (there’s 30 pages of references at the back of the book) so this is a well researched book. However, until she arrived at the wartime years and the 1950s/60s onwards I plodded through the pages - and even then I wished there were some illustrations apart from the sketch of a button at the head of each chapter. As with “Threads of Life” by Clare Hunter, I ended up looking up things on my iPad to understand what she was referring to.

The author was born in 1958 so I am three years older than her - so the sections on the 1960s and 1970s were particularly relevant but our experiences very different. I feel even now that “the sixties happened elsewhere” (p253) for me.

My very conservative mother did not embrace the new fashions as hers did so, growing up, I was one of those who were kept on the fringes of the changes, battling for shorter skirts and clothes I wasn’t expected to “grow into.” In the 1970s - given a dress allowance of £1 a week to stop the arguments, I remember grieving when my mother’s washing techniques turned my skinny rib polo necks into the “sloppy Joe” style!

However I did have a Sindy doll - I still have her in fact! - so reading her Sindy memories provoked many memories.

[Adam Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

One by one, Lynne Knight takes items out of her family's button box, and uses them as a prompt to discuss different aspects of women's lives in the twentieth century - not just fashion, but childhood, education, work, relationships, leisure, and more. She draws a lot on her own family experiences, as well as contemporary and modern discussions. There are some very evocative images too, not least the description of mothers providing half a strip of fabric when leaving their children at the Foundling Hospital, with the idea that they could provide the other half if they were later able to reclaim their child. There are two weaknesses with the book, though. One - towards the end, it did lose some of its energy and became more of a slow read. Two - it would have been good to have more illustrations or photos, especially given the very nice cover!

[Rhianwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly as the subtitle says: ‘The story of women in the 20th century, told through the clothes they wore’.

Though for clarity I’d add this is focussed in the UK.

Each chapter takes a representative button and expands on a particular time and the clothes of that time, which in turn give insight into the lives of the women who wore them.

To those who question if anyone still had a button tin: yes people (almost all women) still do. As ever, buttons are damned expensive and can make or break an outfit. Given the increasing focus on sustainability and repairing clothes again, this book turns a lens back on something that may again feature heavily in people’s lives (maybe not just women’s lives in the future???)

[BlurryBug · Rating 4 out of 5]

When did clothes go from being a necessity to a measure of our self worth.
The button box explores clothes for women through the last 150-200 years with a starting point of the button of said clothing.

Most of us grew up in households where our grandma, our mother or even our father had a jar/box of buttons. Old buttons, extra button from a shirt/trousers or new buttons because they looked pretty or was needed for a project.
This was a interesting read cause it combines personal tale, history from the last 150 years (set in England as the authors is English) and shows how clothes goes from usefulness to status.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting idea exploring the history of women's fashion from the Victorian era to the 1970s using the author's button box as prompts for the different periods. Most of the buttons contained in the titular box came from Knight's grandmother and mother's own clothes. Each chapter details a different button and a different era as the author links them to the fashions and historical events of the time.

Unfortunately, (for me, as a big social history fan) at times it felt rather bogged down with too many quotes from other authors and not enough detail - that's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but it didn't quite hit the mark. 3/5

[Pam Keevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who can remember Biba, Jackie magazine, department stores with their special smell,our mothers in aprons, our grandmothers and their hats, this book is not only an amazing trip down memory lane but a shocking reveal of how women have been manipulated by fashion for years... the thin waists of the Edwardian and Victorian era, the flattened chests of the flappers, the pointed cone bras of the 50s bombshell...and what for? It's also shows how costly clothes were until fairly recently and how much effort was made in adapting them, caring for them and mending. It's a book I know I will read again as there is so much to absorb.

[Susan Leona Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressively researched historical account of buttons and fashion and class etc. Learning to sew on a Singer machine had echoes for me, and the precise way girls were taught to do their stitches. At the age of 11 I was made to unpick a perfect row of hand-stitched hemming (I’d graduated to making a cotton blouse) because it sloped the ‘wrong’ way. Since it would be tucked in anyway (in those days) I couldn’t see the problem but (seething) did as I was told. The person I am today would not have been so submissive!

[Jenna Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favourite. I found this a hard slog. I wasn't very keen on the writing style, but it's probably more likely that I didn't have a huge amount of interest in the content, or generally when reading, was too tired to appreciate it.

I should add that one of my earliest memories is of 'sorting' buttons from my mum's button tin (an old Quality Street one!). I donated it to a charity shop when she died, but although I rarely sew anything, I do have a wee button bag of my own.

[Snorki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at women’s lives through the lens of buttons within a button box. The book is a weaving of personal stories and memories of the author’s clothes and family, and the way women’s clothes have changed to reflect changing times. A little disjointed at times - more a collection of essays, but understandable given the subject matter. Each chapter uses a different button to explore an outfit, a period in time, the effects and changes of women’s lives during that period.

[Bookworm Ava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! I just wish a few photographs had been included, nevertheless, it was a most interesting read.
I so miss the time spent playing with my Grandma's button box and this book reminded me of those happy times. If you like social history, fashion and enjoy choosing buttons, whether for a sewing project or just as a collector then this is a great book to read especially for those who love vintage fashion. Superb Bibliography. This book is a keeper on my physical bookshelf. 🙂

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Button Box: Lifting The Lid on Women's Lives (Hardcover)
by Lynn Knight
Another book chosen by one of my book clubs... LK has a chatty style which I enjoyed. If you haven't read this get down to the bookshop and purrr chase. I was reminded of my Mum and Aunts... Sewing and pinning. The Singer Singing and whatknot pinned out on the kitchen table. I'm going to recommend this to a friend who lives in Chesterfield.

[Debbie Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very engaging and readable romp through the social history of British women in the 20th century, using the various buttons found in the author's button box, left by her grandmother, great-aunt and mother. Fascinating, touching, amusing - and for me, as one of a similar vintage to the author, coming of age in the late 20th century, very relateable. Highly recommended.

[Fern Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely personal history through the buttons and ephemera that end up in all of our haberdashery boxes. It goes into fashions of the eras and really contextualises the sartorial decisions of the day. I really enjoyed this book, although found it a bit repetitive towards the end. I would still recommend.

[Beverley Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this unique travel through history

This was a unique take on fashion and social history. I absolutely loved it. I am inspired to delve into my own family button run and see what stories are linked to them.

[Jennifer Broadhurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, partly because it took me back to my childhood, playing with my own mum’s button tin. I also enjoyed the history, with all the little anecdotes relating to the various buttons, buckles, etc. It was a sweet little read.

[Joanne Love · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected - more a personal and family history than s history of women’s clothing. Less informative than I hoped.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful surprise of a book. Has a very tempting bibliography too!

[Sandra]

A really interesting read on the lives of women in the 20th century, social history, war years, inter-war years and post-war years - influences and opportunities.