Changing buttons a quick way to change and upgrade the look of favorite pieces of clothing

One thing I have done forever is change buttons on clothing: Sometimes the minute I get something home that I otherwise love but which has bland buttons; other times after I’ve worn something for a while and want a different look.

My most recent is the red coat in the previous blog, but here are some others I’ve done in the last year.

H & M Sweater. I bought this vanilla-colored sweater at an H & M store in San Francisco when we were taken off guard by a sudden chill at the end of summer.

The buttons were plastic and faded into the sweater, so when I got home I found some carved wood buttons that were painted black in the carved areas and the sweater really popped.

Target jean jacket

This jacket has been around for some time and wasn’t getting a lot of  wear. I saw a denim jacket at Saks or Neimans for a ridiculous amount of money (afterall, this is denim!), and what was interesting about it was that it had buttons that looked hand painted and were definitely not the usually metal snap-looking buttons.

So I went to my then favorite fabric store D’Leas (no longer in operation, sadly) and bought these leopard buttons.

The silk boyfriend sweater. Not sure why these are now called boyfriend sweaters (it was called a cardigan when I bought it some years ago), but I’ve had this for a long time and like it’s tweedy texture and that it can be worn year round because it’s a silk knit. But I got tired of the plastic buttons it came with, so repurposed some buttons off a frayed dress from a thrift store and love the contrast that the black jet buttons surrounded by gold provide to the preppy tweed.

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