Buttons and Zips

Lesson card: fastenings

• The buttonhole: buttonholes for fastening clothes appeared in Germany in the 13th century and spread with close-fitting garments.
• The zip: Whitcomb Judson patented a "clasp locker" for shoes in 1893; Gideon Sundback developed it in 1913 into two rows of teeth on two tapes; and in the 1920s the B.F. Goodrich company gave the name "Zipper" to its rubber boots.
• Velcro: Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticed burdock burrs clinging to his clothes and his dog's fur, invented the hook-and-loop fastener and patented it in 1955. The name comes from the French words velours (velvet) and crochet (hook).
• Button placement: buttons are sewn on the centre front line, and the overlap extends beyond it by roughly the button's diameter.
• Buttonhole length: about the button's diameter plus its thickness. Horizontal buttonholes take sideways strain, as on trouser waistbands and coats; vertical ones suit a narrow shirt placket.
• Right and left: men's garments have the buttons on the right-hand side and women's on the left. Nobody knows the reason for certain: there are theories about servants, swords and riding, but historians haven't settled it.