What kind of BUTTON are you?

Celebrate South King Street: Event Details
Sunday 20th June 11am to 3pm

OR join us online!

Sponsored by Innerwest Council
#celebratesouthking #allbuttons

What kind of button are you?
A natural wood or shell, or perhaps a bit horny?
Are you a vintage gem, or a modern masterpiece? Do you like to dress up, or dress down - blend in, or stand out?
We invite you for an afternoon of button story telling, to explore and find yourself amongst our extravagant collection. All stories and button images will be collated for a future book, showcasing our button loving community and capturing the diversity of our eclectic customers.
All stories will be anonymous.
All ages event! Mobility accessible. Racism not welcome. 

Everyone welcome...what kind of button are you?
For those of you who are much further away from our Newtown premises, join in the fun from afar!
Think about the buttons (why limit it to just the one - we all have many facets to our lives) that best describe you and write a few notes about why. We'll search our shelves using your criteria and find your match. 

To get you started, think about the traits of a button that you most admire.
Do you share the same traits? Or do you wish you did? What colour would you be?

In 2009, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of All Buttons Great and Small we asked our staff the same questions. There were some interesting, and hilarious, responses that we'll share below.

O:
Buttons have taken me to people and places I never imagined possible.
​I am not a button.

M:
The weight and thickness, the colour and any odd detail in the design. I like the old plastics’ smell too.
I love the Dudleys*, so comforting in shape and size and range with the mother and the father, sister, brother, and the maroon aunts and uncles and the cousins – I’d like to be a black Dudley father button. Or else a novelty mushroom.
*the name we embraced to describe some particular casein buttons in our stock

J:
Their versatility and functionality.
I'd be the "Press for Champagne" button in a 1950s cocktail lounge.

S:
There are so many combinations of traits which make a button smashing. Simplicity, geometry, colour, uniqueness or rarity, quality, design, oooh I could go on and on. But red ones definitely move me the most.
I'd be the largest red button in the world, preferably of a natural material.

I:
I admire subtlety, quirk, confidence, audacity, vintage fragility, and versatility.
I'd be a small purple ceramic eggplant one please!

B:
The large variety they come in and how versatile they are – so much more than a fastener!
I'd be either something really kitsch, or the big coconut one.

W:
Buttons should be up to the task like a father penguin, distinct like Boy George on a stock market trading floor, encompassing yet succinct like a haiku.
I'd be one that reminds me of adventures and good times and if I were a button with consciousness then, like a well placed “fly on the wall”, I’d like to be a button that gets to hitch on more adventures and good times

R:
I admire their perfection – the right size, proportion, texture, lustre, and colour for the garment or item. The ultimate ideal.
I'd be George Clooney’s belly button.

Customer: 
​I'd be the panic button.