If Men Went To That Buttoning School
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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I don’t know what “that” buttoning school is.
It’s like there was something going around called a “buttoning school” and this is his joke capitalizing on the current thing and doing the “misunderstanding the name” joke (which is, all things considered, a pretty good joke) but there’s nothing called a buttoning school from the teens or twenties as far as I can tell from the google.Report
I don’t know what “that” buttoning school is.
I suspect a joke about a school that should exist to train friend husband. How to use a button hook. Which button hook to use for eyelets compared to button holes. Where to start and which way to go to minimize pressure and wear-and-tear. Hook-and-eye closures instead of buttons.Report
Searching an archive of Chicago newspapers from 1910 returned only one hit for “buttoning school”: The caption of this very cartoon.Report
I think it’s just a general joke? that the fashion was for dresses that button in the back, and you can’t do your own buttons, so women who don’t have the luxury of a maid have to get “Friend Husband” to do it, and he isn’t all that willing? Or maybe isn’t good at it?
I dunno. I had a blouse once that buttoned up the back, I could usually get all the buttons done up myself (live alone) but it was enough of a pain that I got rid of it. If I ever lose the flexibility to do up the back zips in the dresses I own I’ve got a problem.
Back in the day there were also buttonhooks (I have one my grandma passed on to me) to help pull small buttons through holes but I think those were mainly used for the high-button shoes of the early 20th C.Report
Thanks everybody. Given all that information, my guess is that he got asked to button up the wife’s blouse/dress before a play or dinner party or something and screwed it up sitcom dad style.
And he got a cartoon out of it.Report
Does that really explain what that buttoning school is?
There has to be some specific concept that already exists, some imaginary buttoning school that already exists. Indeed, there should be more than one, if we’re talking about ‘that’ specific one.
Also these women seem really tall, there’s some sort of height thing going on here, although it may just so the dresses have a lot of buttons.
…actually, way too many buttons, what sort of weird dresses button all the way down? The back is what has buttons. Why would anyone need buttons where their legs are, people put a dress on by stepping into it and pulling it up. You only need buttons above where the body starts getting curvey so parts of the dress had to go past wider places on the way up than where they eventually stopped at.Report
I kinda want to reply with “it’s called fashion, look it up”? Lots of stuff that wasn’t practical (and still is: “thanks, it has pockets!” is a meme because so many women’s clothing lacks pockets, which are an extremely practical feature) made it into fashion.
Possibly also buttons were expensive, so lots of buttons were a mark of status?Report