Stopped by a vintage shop in Portland last weekend and noticed something weird about their blazers

I was browsing this place called Vintage Vault in SE Portland and every single 70s sports jacket they had used horn or bone buttons. Not a single plastic button in the bunch. Is that a standard thing for that era or did I just get lucky with one store's stock?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucas_grant8313d ago

Oh man, I actually read an article about this a while back. It said that in the 70s, high-end plastic was still pretty new and expensive to make look good, so natural materials like horn, bone, and even coconut shell were the budget-friendly standard for makers. This one book I skimmed mentioned that a lot of factories had leftover stock of horn buttons from the 50s and 60s too, so they just kept using them. So yeah, you definitely hit on a real thing with that store haul.

jade22613d ago

Wonder if those leftover horn buttons were just a random batch or if factories specifically kept making them on purpose for certain brands?

the_gray13d ago

I used to think any old button was fine on a vintage blazer, but then I dug into this myself after finding a 1970s Pendleton jacket at an estate sale. The button had this weird grain and feel, so I looked it up and learned that during that decade, makers actually preferred natural materials like horn or bone because they were cheaper than good plastic and matched the earth-tone vibe everyone wanted. Now I check every blazer I see, and it's wild how many from that time skip plastic entirely. It honestly changed how I view old sport coats, makes you wonder why anyone switched back to cheap buttons later on.