To celebrate MessyNessyChic’s next book finally heading off to the printers, I thought we’d switch this week’s “Collector’s item du Jour” series with a special sneak peek at Don’t be a Tourist in New York. So I’ve combed through the manuscript and plucked out my favourite collector’s addresses … for your Keyholder eyes only!
Spot the giant gold button hanging above the street, which means you’ve arrived at the world’s most charming button shop, Tender Buttons, the kind of place you might find Mary Poppins doing her morning errands. As rare as an umbrella shop these days, it’s been on the East Side for over 50 years; the name borrowed from a work by Gertrude Stein. Sandwiched in between two competing shoe repair shops on the ground floor of an elegant brick townhouse, the shopfront is appropriately as cute as a button. In 1964, the late Diana Epstein purchased a large collection of antique buttons from an eccentric dealer and the business was born. Inside, the walls are covered in rare, precious and antique buttons from 18th-century French enamels to Art Nouveau silver to plastic kitsch from the 1940s. Behind each display of buttons is a drawer bursting with more buttons. Whether you’re looking to transform an old coat, or searching for the finishing touch to a new jewelry project, Tender Buttons is a real jewel box of inspiration.
(143 E 62nd St, Upper East Side, NY 10065; +1 212-758-7004;
Mon-Sat 10.30am-6pm; Tenderbuttons-nyc.com)
