A Nod to the Past

Recent seasons have seen some mainstream retailers carry designs inspired by Victorian and Edwardian blouses, including some back-buttoned tops carried by places like Anthropologie. Some are still available, like these two pieces by Barrie Pace:

Another example is this top by Jessica McClintock, a label known for featuring back-buttoned designs in past years:

But most of them, such as the three examples below, are no longer available.

Button-back Skirt Slits

One place you do still occasionally see rear button closures are skirt slits (or vents, as some call them). Even mainstream retailers occasionally pick up this trend - for example, Victoria's Secret has no less than three variations among their sleek line of pencil skirts, like this one:

Not to be outdone, BeBe has three styles of its own, like this one:

Here's another example for House of Dereon:

The detail has shown up on some dresses as well, such as this plaid chemise from Barrie Pace:

Intro

So why a blog about back-buttoned apparel? Well, why not. Just about everything else has its sites and blogs, but few exist about this particular topic. A distinctly feminine detail, it was frequently in use historically, but seen fairly rarely today among adult clothing. So here I'll point out some modern examples, like this pretty black dress from Yves St. Laurent's Fall 2000 collection:


So that's about it. Please feel free to comment, especially to share any of your own finds.