Invention of Button

A button is probably the most unremarkable thing on your shirt. You’ve handled thousands of them without giving them a thought. But the history of buttons stretches back five thousand years, passes through civilisations on three continents, and includes a period of several centuries where a single jacket could have buttons worth more than the fabric underneath it.

The button is older than the zip, older than the safety pin, and in its current functional form — button plus buttonhole — represents one of the more quietly significant design solutions in the history of clothing.

The Earliest Buttons: Decoration, Not Function

The story of the button begins around 7000 BCE, with the earliest known button-like object found in a burial site in Mohenjo-daro, part of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation in present-day Pakistan.

The oldest buttons excavated from the ancient world were found in the Indus Valley’s Mohenjo-daro settlement. They were small, curved shells with holes drilled through them — decorative objects worn as ornaments, attached to ancient clothing by thread.

Early buttons were crafted from natural materials such as shells, stone, bone, and wood. As the centuries passed, the materials changed and the craftsmanship grew more elaborate — but the fundamental purpose remained decorative.

Ancient Rome and the Problem of Fastening Heavy Cloth

Ancient Rome began the use of buttons, although their usage was far more practical. Unlike in the Indus Valley, buttons in ancient Rome had to be large and strong to hold the heavy garments of Roman fashion.

The Romans needed something to keep their garments in place. Heavy woollen robes don’t drape themselves. But the buttons they used created a different problem — these buttons poked large, unsightly holes in clothing and soon fell out of favour among the garment makers of ancient Rome.

The Romans eventually settled on the fibula — essentially an ancient safety pin — as their preferred fastening device. The fibula was a sort of ancient safety pin, common in Rome but lost to history until the 1800s.

The Invention of the Buttonhole: The Moment Everything Changed

This is the turning point in the history of buttons — and it happened quietly in 13th century Germany.

It was not until 13th century Germany when buttons featuring that most important counterpart, buttonholes, were used to keep clothing closed, and they also started to be used for fastening shoes, tunics, surcoats, and hoods.

The buttonhole seems obvious in retrospect. Cut a small slit in the fabric, reinforce the edges, push the button through, done. But for most of human history, nobody had done it. Clothing was held in place by brooches, fibulae, laces, ties, and pins. The button-and-buttonhole combination — the system that makes clothing buttons actually work — is a medieval invention.

The middle ages brought with them the invention of the all-important buttonhole, which was to quietly revolutionise clothing.

By the 13th and 14th century, buttons were widespread throughout Europe. Once the buttonhole existed, fitted clothing became possible in a new way. Sleeves could tighten at the wrist. Jackets could close properly at the chest.

Who Invented Buttons as We Know Them?

The question of who invented buttons doesn’t have a single answer, because the button evolved in stages across multiple civilisations. If you mean the first button-like object: the Indus Valley Civilisation, around 2800 BCE.

If you mean the functional clothing buttons that actually fasten garments: 13th century German tailors who combined the existing button with the newly invented buttonhole. If you mean the mass-produced plastic button that you’re most likely to encounter today: the Industrial Revolution and the 20th century materials industry. Buttons are traced to the Indus Valley (Pakistan) circa 2800 BC, Scotland circa 2000 BC, and in Bronze Age sites in China and Ancient Rome.

The honest answer to who invented buttons is that it wasn’t one person or one culture. It was a series of separate inventions in different places — the ornamental button, the functional button, the buttonhole, the mass-produced button — each building on what came before.

The Golden Age: Buttons as Luxury Status Objects

Between roughly the 14th and 18th centuries, buttons in Europe went through a period that’s difficult to fully appreciate today.

The Golden Age of Buttons lasted between the 14th and 18th centuries, during which buttons became luxury fashion accessories among European nobility and royalty. Some garments featured more than one hundred buttons, and the total value of the buttons could exceed the cost of the fabric itself.

Buttons in this period were made from gold, silver, ivory, gemstones, and fine enamelwork. They were miniature objects of art. These guilds regulated the production of buttons and passed laws regarding their use. Button-making was a regulated trade because the stakes were high — a set of gold buttons was a significant financial asset.

Henry VIII of England reportedly owned a jacket with 179 gold buttons. French kings used buttons as diplomatic gifts.

The Industrial Revolution: Buttons for Everyone

The Industrial Revolution brought mechanisation to button production, making them more accessible to a wider range of people. The availability of new materials like glass, porcelain, and early plastics led to a proliferation of button designs, from simple and utilitarian to intricate and ornate.

What had been an object of luxury became an everyday necessity. Machines could produce buttons in quantities that hand-craftsmen couldn’t approach. The price dropped. The availability expanded.

Some mothers and children even worked from home sewing buttons to cards for the manufacturers — a cottage industry that reflected how pervasive button production had become.

By the 20th century, plastic replaced most other materials for standard clothing buttons. Plastic was cheaper, lighter, could be produced in any colour, and didn’t rust.

What Buttons Are Made of Today

The materials have changed enormously across the history of buttons. Here’s a quick look at what buttons have been made from across the centuries:

• Shell and bone — the earliest materials, used from prehistoric times through antiquity
• Bronze and metal — Roman-era buttons for heavier garments
• Gold, silver, ivory, and gemstone — medieval and Renaissance luxury buttons for the wealthy
• Wood and glass — more accessible alternatives through the 17th and 18th centuries
• Mother of pearl — very popular in the 19th century for shirt buttons
• Early plastics (celluloid, Bakelite) — late 19th and early 20th century
• Modern plastic and resin — the dominant material today for most clothing buttons

FAQs About the History of Buttons

What is the oldest known button in history?

The story of the button begins around 7000 BCE, with the earliest known button-like object found in a burial site in Mohenjo-daro, part of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation in present-day Pakistan. This was a curved shell with holes drilled through it — decorative rather than functional. Buttons are often viewed as simple fasteners for clothing, but their history stretches back more than 5,000 years.

Who invented the functional clothing button?

The functional clothing buttons we recognise today required two inventions: the button itself and the buttonhole. It was not until 13th century Germany when buttons featuring that most important counterpart, buttonholes, were used to keep clothing closed. The invention of buttons as a practical fastening system — not just a decorative object — happened in medieval Germany.

Why did it take so long for buttons to become practical fasteners?

The button existed as a decorative object for thousands of years before the buttonhole was invented. Without the buttonhole, a button can decorate ancient clothing but can’t actually fasten it. The Romans tried using buttons to hold heavy garments in place, but these buttons poked large, unsightly holes into garments and soon fell out of favour.

When did buttons stop being luxury items and become everyday objects?

The Industrial Revolution brought mechanisation to button production, making them more accessible to a wider range of people. Before industrialisation, the Golden Age of Buttons between the 14th and 18th centuries saw buttons become luxury fashion accessories among European nobility and royalty, with some garments featuring more than one hundred buttons whose total value could exceed the cost of the fabric itself.