Buttons for a tweed kilt jacket

[mbuff]

Does anyone have a recommendation for where to buy appropriate buttons (stag horn?) to be sewn on a tweed kilt jacket? I have a tweed jacket that I am having tailored in the style of a kilt jacket, but the tailor needs me to supply the buttons I would like sewn on the jacket. I would prefer a vendor in the U.S., if possible. Thanks!

[Hiburnicus]

Here is one listing I came across on that auction site...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-TOTAL-REAL...item5d493f0eab

[plaid preacher]

Here is one listing I came across on that auction site...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-TOTAL-REAL...item5d493f0eab

These are beautiful buttons.

I think if you contact any of our sponsors they may be able to set you up. I know when I needed a button for a jacket, my kiltmaker - keltoi - was able to provide a replacement. Think both USA kilts and Freedom kilts also keep a stock of the same.

[Kiltboy]

Here's another source.
http://bennosbuttons.com/Suit-and-Sport-Coat-Buttons
They are based in Dallas, but their website is detailed and photos and sizes, and many options beyond coat/blazer, if you need them.

[MNlad]

I did a conversion about a year ago and had an extremely hard time finding genuine antler buttons made in the traditional way at anywhere near a reasonable cost. Then I stumbled across this site http://www.antler-crafts.com/shop/an...tons/index.htm. Yes, it is in Germany, and ordering is a bit tedious, but the buttons are absolutely beautiful. Knowing a bit of Deutsch doesn't hurt.

[Kanati]

Does anyone have a recommendation for where to buy appropriate buttons (stag horn?) to be sewn on a tweed kilt jacket? I have a tweed jacket that I am having tailored in the style of a kilt jacket, but the tailor needs me to supply the buttons I would like sewn on the jacket. I would prefer a vendor in the U.S., if possible. Thanks!

I saw this last night.
http://www.jhiggins.net/sf_catproductlist.asp?sf_cpn=2

I think they attach with a clip so that they can be changed to a different type of button without sewing.

[KiltedSergeant]

Try PMing member vmac3205, she made three jacket conversions for me (all excellent) and has a source of buttons (I believe she told me once she gets them from her husband). I have three different color and style buttons on my jackets that she provided. Good luck!

[mbuff]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

[vmac3205]

Try PMing member vmac3205, she made three jacket conversions for me (all excellent) and has a source of buttons (I believe she told me once she gets them from her husband). I have three different color and style buttons on my jackets that she provided. Good luck!

Yes. My husband has a process that he uses to make very realistic buttons. They are free with the conversion.

[Benning Boy]

I have just one everyday kilt jacket, a Wallace jacket from Freedom Kilts. It's charcoal gray with dark faux antler buttons. Likewise the matching waist coat. I intend to remove these "traditional" buttons and replace them with ordinary suit coat buttons. I just don't wear the jacket enough to make the alteration urgent, so haven't gotten around to doing it yet, but I will.


Other jackets I plan to convert when my sewing skills are mature enough, will keep their plain buttons.


We often see this quotation here on X Marks: " The highland dress is essentially a 'free' dress -- that is to say, a man's taste and circumstances must alone be permitted to decide when and where and how he should wear it."


What doesn't seem to be posted at all is the preceding sentence: "And here let me caution those who either wear the Highland dress, contemplate doing so, or design attiring others in it, on no account to listen or pay the slightest attention to those whose attitude towards our national costume corresponds in every way to a martinet towards his uniform."


In the text by Stuart Ruaidri Erskine, "The Kilt and How To Wear It," both sentences appear in bold face and underlined. They are emphatic.

Erskine says nothing of buttons specifically. However, when interpreting his thoughts in general, there is in my mind no need to fret over buttons. If you absolutely have to have antler buttons, then seek them out, but there is no law (although our Martinets seem to want it so) that says you must only wear antler buttons on kilt jackets, and it seems to me no real tradition, in the strictest sense of the word, of wearing antler buttons. As OCRichard points out, antler buttons are apparently a fairly late contrivance. I suspicion antler buttons on kilt jackets may be a borrowing from Tyrolean dress, foreign to the Highlands, and quite likely a marketing gimmick more than anything else, which caught on well enough to give the illusion of being traditional. It would be interesting to me to study this. But the detective work is beyond me.

Do as you wish, whether you desire a jacket conforming to the fashion plates, or one that speaks of you alone. All that precedes is just my two cents worth.