SPOTLIGHT
A bevy of
buttons
This dress drips with vintage finds.
by Kristen Scheuing
W
ith the whimsical title of “Button, button who
has 7,531 buttons,” this colorful dress was
inspired by the sassy style of the 1920s.
Another apt name would have been “Hour,
hour who has 450 hours,” for the length of
time it took Gwen Evans and Linda Varela to make it. Over the past decade, Gwen, a clothing designer for more
than 30 years, has been collecting vintage buttons from the
flea markets of Paris, where she leads small tour groups. Linda
met Gwen on one of those trips and later happened to move
to Gwen’s hometown of Port Townsend, Washington. With similar interests — Linda has an extensive background in theater,
film, and television wardrobe work — the duo decided to collaborate on a project for the 2014 Port Townsend Wearable Art
Show — and put a pretty hefty button collection to good use.
All the buttons were sewn on by hand. The bodice is
encrusted with mother-of-pearl and vintage buttons and
features a metal-findings focal point. For the fringe, buttons
were sewn to vintage rayon seam tape that was dyed to
match the foundation fabric of vintage silk moiré taffeta.
Once they got into the project, Linda and Gwen quickly
realized that thousands of buttons are heavy; when finished,
the dress weighed 25 pounds. “It was pretty obvious after the
first fitting that we needed more under-garment support,” says
Linda. Handling the engineering and final construction, she
designed two drawstrings inside the skirt to help reinforce the
form at the waist and hips. They added an under belt and
ran chain from a metal focal point in the front over the shoulders. In the center of the back, delicate chain ropes fan out
to secure the garment in eight places.
The dress also made an appearance at their town’s film
festival and Linda thinks the dress could have a real future
“
in the arts. “Lady Gaga would do it justice,” she says. w
would do it justice
90
© 201 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form
www.BeadAndButton.com
without permission from the publisher.
www.BeadAndButton.com
Chuck Moses
Lady Gaga
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