In yesterday's post we looked at a sustainable fabric made with straw, so let's now focus on small yet sustainable parts that are still vital to create a garment, such as buttons.
According to materials scientists and historians, the downfall of Napoleon's great army was caused not by powerful weapons, but by tiny buttons. In December 1812, Napoleon's army, originally comprising 600,000 soldiers, returned from Russia with only 10,000 men. Unbeaten until then, the soldiers had to fight against adverse weather conditions, but also against a terrible wardrobe malfunction caused by chemical properties: the buttons of their uniforms that also held up their pants were indeed made of tin, a metal that turns into gray dust when the temperature drops.
The tin buttons that fastened everything from the great coats to the trousers and jackets of his foot soldiers, therefore disintegrated as temperatures dripped. Weakened by the chilling cold they couldn't fight nor resist. And while some disagree with this theory as the disintegration of tin is a slow process, it is a fascinating story that invites us to consider the importance of buttons.
Made with a variety of materials – from metal to mother-of-pearl, wood, ivory or horn – the most common modern buttons are made of plastic and they may therefore be another cause of pollution (unless you remove them from old clothes and reuse them for other garments or projects – many of us do so and quite a few of us love to collect buttons as well...).
Some companies are trying to come up with sustainable solutions, though: Courtney & Co are the last button makers in the UK and at the moment they are working on developing horn buttons. In the meantime, they have two types of buttons that you may find intriguing - one is made with the Corozo nut; the other with Codelite, sourced from milk casein.
Also known as "vegetable ivory", Corozo derives from the nut of Ecuador's indigenous Tagua palm trees. It takes 15 years for a Tagua tree to mature and produce its first crop, but, from then on, the tree will produce nuts for a century or more. Every year a Tagua palm tree can produce 15 balls called "mococha" that contain up to 1,800 nuts (the mocochas are not harvested, but fall off the tree when they are mature). To make 500 buttons you need 120 nuts and, by purchasing them, designers and consumers can contribute to maintain and protect the ancient rainforests in Central America. Corozo can also be dyed in vibrant shades, so that Courtney & Co's buttons come in the most brilliant colours.
Codelite® derives instead from 96% casein, a protein found in milk. Rennet, a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals, is introduced to the milk so that solids (curds) can be separated from the liquid (whey). Edible acids are added to accelerate the process. Formalin is added to turn the substance into a solid material at a rate of about 1mm in thickness per week, while whey is sold as a commercially valuable commodity with many diverse uses. It takes 33kg of milk to make 1kg of Codelite®.
Codelite® was first produced in the UK as far back as 1910 at a factory in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Casein production ceased in the '60s when the UK's last milk casein-making plant in Gloucester was closed. While production of milk casein buttons continued in the UK until the early '70s.
Like Corozo, Codelite® is a versatile material and can be dyed and polished. Fashion historians may remember that the history of fashion actually includes a textile made with casein, lanital, a synthetic wool that combined in its name the words "lana" (wool) and "Italia". First developed in 1916 by a German chemist and improved by Italian engineer Antonio Ferretti in 1935, lanital was obtained from milk casein and had a molecular structure very similar to that of wool.
A few designers have started using these buttons, among the others Phoebe English, who mainly employs natural dyes and waste fabrics in her designs.
Robust, hard-wearing and washable in ordinary machines, these sustainable buttons have an added value - they are indeed biodegradable as well.
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