Monday, 1 September 2008

Thursday 28th August 2008. Manchester!

Eary start today! Had to get up at 6am! Tobe in Birmingham for 7.10am to get the coach toManchester!Arriving in Manchester around 11am, firststop for me and Kimmi was Yates for a everymuch deserved Archers & lemonade! I know itwas early but still, it set us up for the day!
First gallery... Manchester Art Gallery.We pretty much did this gallery from headto toe. I reckon we spent a good 2 hoursin there, easily. On the first floor we noticed a small exhibition called 'Button World.' We spent ages trying to find this one room,but when we did we realised why... causeit was so small!! But it was FULL of BUTTONS!! I was thinking why couldn'tthis collection of been on a while ago when I was doing my projects on Collections & Buttons! Ha.

Button World:
Every button has a story to tell.

Woman's Jacket - Vivienne Westwood, Wool/tweed fabric. 1990-2000.Westwood takes classic, tailored shapes &fabrics and gives them a twist, to create astyle thats witty and new.The outsized buttons with their bold logo,contrast with the traditional tweedyfabric, stamping the garnment as uniquelyWESTWOOD!



















Logo Button - Vivienne Westwood, Engravedamber-coloured plastic. 1990-2000.
Westwood used buttons to trademark her designs with her logo. As soon as they're sewn onto a garnment itinstantly oozes designers creation.














Crazy button fact... Louis XIV, King ofFrance, spent the equivalent of £3 millionon buttons during his lifetime!

Bit about Buttons...Button making used many skils & processes.Until the 18th century, buttons werehand-made. Industries developed newtechnologies to forge, press, stamp, rivet metals and decorate them with gold, silver or enamel. The demand for buttonsdrove invention onward.Glass, Mother-of-Pearl, horn and eventropical nuts were transformed into elegant buttons. In the 20th century, plastics wereinvented, which could imitate whatever fashion wished!

























































Set of Waistcoat buttons - images from Guinness adverts. Brass, glass & plastic.1950-1960.
The Dublin Brewery Company Guinness ran a highly successful poster campaign in the1950's. It's slogan 'My Goodness, My Guinness!' These buttons reproduce imagesfrom the posters and would have been given to barmen to wear.

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