Buttons & Loops; real or fake

Tiny buttons and loops are the most absolute beautiful finish one can have in a wedding gown if you are going to have buttons for closure. I have always loved their beauty, used in the right place. One may wonder what I mean by fake, well its the practice of stitching buttons on over zip to give the effect.

This has to be one of my all time pet hates as it touches a nerve with me almost like I hate anything fake.

If you’re going to do something in life do it right is always my motto!

Yes, some dresses actually just sew buttons on over the zip closure.

Now I know there are some out there that don’t think there is any difference visually. But there most definitely is. I can tell you when you’re a wedding guest you are often in full view of the back of a brides dress and for me to see buttons stitched on over a zip seems like poor attention to detail. For me, it is all in the detail.

I think it probably harks back slightly to tradition, and what a wedding dress is all about. Time to make the rouleaus – the button loops which are made of bias cut strips, made into the finest cord and the buttons themselves lovingly covered in the dress fabric and the love that goes into making them all perfectly the same and beautifully spaced apart to close softly over the button. It is a fine detail like an art in itself. Time is taken to make, time taken to put on the gown. It is the whole experience of getting into your wedding dress, the time to do it. It is an event, an experience to treasure, not to be rushed. Enjoyed and every part should feel special and just for you.

There is such beauty in how real ones look. I am a big advocate of fit and finish being vitally important. I would rather see a dress made in cotton beautifully then in the most expensive fabric badly!

So real buttons and loops for me all the way!