Mother of pearl buttons

[Noble Savage]

Mother of pearl buttons, on a black/grey tweed? Why? Why not? What is your opinion on mother of pearl buttons on tweedy, country outfits that are of grey tones?

[andy57]

Trying to picture it in my mind's eye, the only question I would have is if the shine of a MoP button would look odd on a tweed coat. My suggestion would be to try it and see if you like the way it looks. The worst that can happen is you don't like it and decide to change the buttons for something else, which is a trivial alteration.

[couch]

I have smoked MoP buttons on the waistband of my Daks-top suit trousers from the LL mid-gray mohair.. They look great. I haven't been able to get just the right shades of flashed horn for the jacket buttons (too dull if dyed, so far too dark from the trimmers in natural). I'm tempted to go with with the smoked MoP. But of course this is a smoother surface and a warmer-weather garment. Still, I can imagine something effective with the right tweed and the right shell buttons. If you had a tweed with some colored fibers in the melange (or maybe even if not), the coruscating colors on some smoked abalone buttons might be a sophisticated match. But it would take some care. As Andy says, why not experiment? You might pick two or three of your top candidates (including horn) and ask your tailor to temporarily tack one of each on the jacket at a fitting so you could assess and discuss their effects.

[davidhuh]

I have done this with a grey tweed suit. I couldn't find the right horn button for it, and the MoP was the best match. The typical MoP shine is hardly visible. I would say it requires careful consideration, as Andy and Couch pointed out.

Cheers, David

[Noble Savage]

Tried it and ended up removing the buttons.