(In)despansable Details - Buttons from Jablonec and the Jizera Mountains

See the largest collection of buttons in the world in Jablonec!

What do the Egyptian sphinx, the unicorn, and famous actress Sarah Bernardt all have in common? You will find the answer to this at IN/DISPENSABLE DETAILS – Buttons from Jablonec and the Jizera Mountains, an exhibition organised by the our museum.

 Buttons have been an integral range of goods within the whole that is the Jablonec costume-jewellery industry for almost three hundred years now. The museum, a state-run national institution, cares for a truly extensive collection that documents this area of production from the end of the 18th century to the present day as far as design, technology, and trade are concerned. The museum depositories hold more than five and a half million buttons of various designs and materials, as well as original sketched drafts and protected industrial designs.

The aim of the exhibition is to present important milestones in the field of production, the history of enterprises from the Jizera Mountains, the influence of fashion, and iconic designs, exclusive pieces and rare exhibits included. "We want to show the button as a refined chameleon that has always been able to cope with mass production and whichever trends fashion has to throw at it, a fact proven to this day by contemporary producers," explains exhibition curator Kateřina Hrušková. In addition to regular products, visitors will also be able to see luxurious buttons for foreign fashion houses, a popular children's range, with motifs of animals, fruits, and fairy-tale characters, and buttons designed for political propaganda or state representation. Plus contemporary production, of course, including exclusive pieces designed for collectors from all over the world.

The exhibition is accompanied by a number of interactive elements: visitors of all ages can enjoy playing with textures and colours, design their own clothes (with buttons), or take up the opportunity to become a collector for a moment, in doing so awakening a new passion. "When putting together the interactive part of the exhibition, we paid a great deal of attention to children, who do not come across buttons that much anymore. The invention of the washing machine saw to it that beautiful glass buttons disappeared from clothes, our own comfort got rid of the others, increasingly replaced by zips, Velcro, and a variety of studs and snap fasteners", explains Director of the Museum Milada Valečková. The exhibition will be accompanied the whole time by an educational programme, with a thematically-focused audio guide for families with children and school groups. There are also special tours for senior citizens and popular thematic art workshops to look forward to.

The exhibition is also joined by a publication of the same name, in Czech and English, with a bountiful visual guide, sure to delight all button lovers among the professional and general public.

Both were created with the help of a financial grant from the programme of institutional support for the long-term conceptual development of research organisation The Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou, which is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

The exhibition will run from 25 October 2024 until 7 September 2025.