Field Trip: Tender Buttons, NYC


We almost went right by it, my sisters and I, as we walked along 62nd Street in Manhattan on a humid morning in July. Luckily, the golden button hanging above the storefront caught our attention and we found ourselves on the doorstep of Tender Buttons, a shop that's been beloved by button collectors and needle artists of all sorts for more than five decades. 

I first learned about Tender Buttons in the 1980s when I was working as an assistant copy editor at McCall's Needlework & Crafts magazine. Before each issue's photo shoot, the fashion editor would make the short trip from our office on 53rd Street to Tender Buttons to select the perfect buttons for the knit and crochet sweaters that would be featured. Back in the copy editing office, we made sure Tender Buttons, along with the yarn companies, was credited in the captions. After the issue was published, I was responsible for sending tear sheets to each credited vendor. Although I found the buttons that came out of Tender Buttons beautiful, twenty-something me wasn't curious enough to visit the shop in person.


My recent trip to Tender Buttons was overdue by about 35 years, and admittedly accidental, but it was well worth the wait. The tiny shop, with its black-and-white tiled floor, vintage lamps, and  wooden furniture and fixtures, is enchanting. (It reminds me of Ollivander's Wand Shop from the Harry Potter movies, only much cheerier and tidier.) 


The main attraction is the buttons, which occupy the hundreds of identical stacked boxes that fill the shop's shelves. Samples of the buttons contained in each box are fastened to the front, accompanied by a hand-printed price and description. The collection represents a range of time periods, places, sizes, shapes, colors, materials, and prices. There are buttons made of brass, wood, leather, antler, plastic, and other natural and manmade materials. You can find antique buttons from France and Italy, less exotic contemporary buttons, and others that are cute and kitschy. 


Of course, I couldn't leave without making a purchase. We could have spent hours at Tender Buttons oohing and aahing over our finds. Since we had a bus to catch, we limited out stay and I eventually settled on three very different and very unique buttons. 


The checkout experience was as delightful as the rest of our visit. We chatted with the woman at the counter, who told us she has worked at the store for about thirty years. She completed the transaction with a hand-written paper receipt and generously let us take as many photos as we liked of the shop's interior. 


As soon as we left, I regretted not buying more buttons. But I could always just order more online, right? Not really. As you may have guessed, Tender Buttons is an old-school operation. There is no Instagram account or Facebook page. There is a website -- www.tenderbuttons-nyc.com -- but you can't order buttons there. However, you can read about the history of buttons -- and the fascinating history of the Tender Buttons shop (which, according to the website, was named after the title of a Gertrude Stein novel). You can also take a photo tour of the store and make inquiries on the contact page.


For me, the shop's lack of social media presence adds to its charm and makes my visit and purchase more special. If I want to find more unique buttons, I'll just have to make a return trip to Tender Buttons. In the meantime, I'll work on designing some special sewing and crochet projects worthy of the buttons I bought on my first visit.