Items related to The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century...
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore - Softcover
I used to love the rattle and whoosh of my grandma’s buttons as they scattered from their Quality Street tin.
An inlaid wooden chest the size of a shoe box holds Lynn Knight’s button collection. A collection that has been passed down through three generations of women: a chunky sixties-era toggle from a favourite coat, three tiny pearl buttons from her mother’s first dress after she was adopted as a baby, a jet button from a time of Victorian mourning. Each button tells a story.
‘They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us’ said Virginia Woolf of clothes. The Button Box traces the story of women at home and in work from pre-First World War domesticity, through the first clerical girls in silk blouses, to the delights of beading and glamour in the thirties to short skirts and sexual liberation in the sixties.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
LYNN KNIGHT is the author of the family memoir, Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue: The Story of an Accidental Family (Atlantic Books 2011) and the biography, Clarice Cliff (Bloomsbury, 2005). She has also edited two collections of short stories, Dangerous Calm: The Selected Stories of Elizabeth Taylor and The Secret Woman: Classics Women's Short Stories. She is a writer, editor and independent lecturer and teaches Literature by Women Writers at London’s City Lit. Lynn lives in London, England.
Review:
"A charming work of social history" * Bookseller * "Knight explores her own family's history and, in parallel, the intimate history of women in the 20th century... The politics of being a modern woman are revealed through changing fashions... In Knight's hands, buttons - the humblest of everyday objects - become portals into the past, charting our progress along that road." -- Lucy Moore * Literary Review * "Charming book... Knight's brilliant notion is to use the button box she inherited from her grandmother as a way of delving into the fabric, literal and metaphorical, of the women who wore them... A patchwork of memory, anecdote and deft quotation." -- Daisy Goodwin * The Sunday Times * "Inspired by her own shimmering box of toggles, clasps and buckles, Knight takes us on an ingenious tour of domestic and social history over the last century... From this core of very personal material, Knight writes more generally of ordinary women's lives and changing prospects over three generations, of clothes as self-expression, as defiance, as entertainment, as evidence of frugality and frivolity all rolled into one." -- Claire Harman * Guardian * "The drama of women's lives from the 19th to the mid-20th century was hidden in plain sight among the brightly coloured buttons that rattled so enticingly in [Knight's] grandmother's Quality Street tin... Fascinating social history." -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail *
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherVintage Books
- Publication date2017
- ISBN 10 0099593092
- ISBN 13 9780099593096
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages320
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 17.62
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
The Button Box (Paperback)
Published by
Vintage Publishing, London
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. An ingenious tour of domestic and social history over the last century (Guardian) - the story of women in the twentieth century told through the clothes they woreA wooden box holds the buttons of three generations of women in Lynn Knight's family - each one with its own tale to tell.Tracing the story of women at home and in work, from the jet buttons of Victorian mourning, to the short skirts of the 1960s, taking in suffragettes, bachelor girls, little dressmakers, Biba and the hankering for vintage, The Button Box lifts the lid on women's lives and their clothes with elegance and wit. Tracing the story of women at home and in work, from the jet buttons of Victorian mourning, to the short skirts of the 1960s, taking in suffragettes, bachelor girls, little dressmakers, Biba and the hankering for vintage, this book lifts the lid on women's lives and their clothes. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099593096
Buy New
US$ 17.62
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore [Soft Cover ]
Published by
Vintage Books
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099593096
Buy New
US$ 17.81
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box
Published by
Random House 2017-03-09, London
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
paperback
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780099593096
Buy New
US$ 13.67
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore
Published by
Vintage Books
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0099593092
Buy New
US$ 15.46
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780099593096-GDR
Buy New
US$ 12.71
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th century told through the clothes they wore
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 320 pages. 7.01x5.08x0.79 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0099593092
Buy New
US$ 13.31
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore
Published by
Vintage Books
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Softcover
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780099593096_new
Buy New
US$ 13.43
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore
Published by
Vintage Publishing
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Paperback / softback
Quantity: 4
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. A wooden box holds the buttons of three generations of women in Lynn Knight's family - each one with its own tale to tell. Seller Inventory # B9780099593096
Buy New
US$ 14.86
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: Lifting the Lid on Women's Lives
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Tracing the story of women at home and in work, from the jet buttons of Victorian mourning, to the short skirts of the 1960s, taking in suffragettes, bachelor girls, little dressmakers, Biba and the hankering for vintage, this book lifts the lid on women's lives and their clothes. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: AKTH; BM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 131 x 178 x 21. Weight in Grams: 234. . 2017. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780099593096
Buy New
US$ 16.44
Convert currency
Stock Image
The Button Box: The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore
Published by
Vintage Books
(2017)
ISBN 10: 0099593092
ISBN 13: 9780099593096
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0099593092
Buy New
US$ 26.31
Convert currency