1
00:00:00,183 --> 00:00:02,550
There are no bad buttons,
there are only bad people.

2
00:00:02,575 --> 00:00:03,577
How does that sound? OK?

3
00:00:03,602 --> 00:00:04,796
[Small thing.]

4
00:00:04,822 --> 00:00:06,060
[Big idea.]

5
00:00:07,356 --> 00:00:09,707
[Isaac Mizrahi on
the Button]

6
00:00:11,311 --> 00:00:13,383
No one knows who invented the button.

7
00:00:13,407 --> 00:00:16,841
It might have shown up
as early as 2,000 BCE.

8
00:00:16,865 --> 00:00:19,148
It was decorative when it first started,

9
00:00:19,172 --> 00:00:21,396
just something pretty
sewn onto your clothes.

10
00:00:21,420 --> 00:00:23,659
Then about 3,000 years later,

11
00:00:23,683 --> 00:00:26,414
someone finally invented the buttonhole,

12
00:00:26,438 --> 00:00:28,265
and buttons were suddenly useful.

13
00:00:28,289 --> 00:00:32,040
The button and the buttonhole
is such a great invention.

14
00:00:32,064 --> 00:00:34,230
Not only does it slip
through the buttonhole,

15
00:00:34,254 --> 00:00:36,099
but then it kind of falls into place,

16
00:00:36,123 --> 00:00:39,186
and so you're completely secure,
like it's never going to open.

17
00:00:39,210 --> 00:00:43,035
The design of a button hasn't changed much
since the Middle Ages.

18
00:00:43,059 --> 00:00:46,347
It's one of the most enduring
designs in history.

19
00:00:46,371 --> 00:00:49,592
For me, the best buttons
are usually round.

20
00:00:49,616 --> 00:00:51,995
There's either a dome button
with a little shank,

21
00:00:52,019 --> 00:00:56,553
or there's just this sort of round thing
with either a rim or not a rim,

22
00:00:56,577 --> 00:00:58,441
either two holes or four holes.

23
00:00:58,465 --> 00:01:01,174
Almost more important than the button
is the buttonhole.

24
00:01:01,198 --> 00:01:03,360
And the way you figure that out is:

25
00:01:03,384 --> 00:01:06,074
the diameter of the button
plus the width of the button,

26
00:01:06,098 --> 00:01:07,428
plus a little bit of ease.

27
00:01:07,452 --> 00:01:10,500
Before buttons, clothes were bigger --

28
00:01:10,524 --> 00:01:12,398
they were more kind of amorphous,

29
00:01:12,422 --> 00:01:14,199
and people, like, wriggled into them

30
00:01:14,223 --> 00:01:16,513
or just kind of wrapped
themselves in things.

31
00:01:16,537 --> 00:01:20,266
But then fashion moved closer to the body

32
00:01:20,290 --> 00:01:22,521
as we discovered uses for the button.

33
00:01:22,545 --> 00:01:28,990
At one time, it was the one way
to make clothes fit against the body.

34
00:01:29,014 --> 00:01:32,689
I think the reason buttons have endured
for so long, historically,

35
00:01:32,713 --> 00:01:35,701
is because they actually work
to keep our clothes shut.

36
00:01:35,725 --> 00:01:36,877
Zippers break;

37
00:01:36,901 --> 00:01:39,790
Velcro makes a lot of noise,
and it wears out after a while.

38
00:01:39,814 --> 00:01:42,655
If a button falls off,
you just literally sew that thing on.

39
00:01:42,679 --> 00:01:45,171
A button is kind of there
for the long run.

40
00:01:45,195 --> 00:01:48,529
It's not just the most
elemental design ever,

41
00:01:48,553 --> 00:01:52,629
it's also such a crazy fashion statement.

42
00:01:52,653 --> 00:01:56,018
When I was a kid, my mom knit me
this beautiful sweater.

43
00:01:56,042 --> 00:01:57,194
I didn't like it.

44
00:01:57,218 --> 00:01:58,760
And then I found these buttons,

45
00:01:58,784 --> 00:02:01,578
and the minute the buttons were
on the sweater, I loved it.

46
00:02:01,602 --> 00:02:04,536
If you don't have good taste
and you can't pick out a button,

47
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:06,479
then let someone else do it, you know?

48
00:02:06,503 --> 00:02:07,653
I mean that.