03-22-2015, 10:16 PM
Quote:I must admit I too favour button holes, hinted at by the way the fabric is depicted as pulling:
However, until somebody finds a button hole in a piece of textile, the jury's out on that one. ;-)
Garments fastened by buttons in a hole are an invention which the American medievalist Lynn White attributed to high medieval Germany. There is pictorial evidence for buttons fastened with loops in antiquity, but no conclusive evidence for buttons inserted through holes in the garment. Hard to believe, but the Chinese, for one, figured it out even later.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
