The Chinese knot button (盘扣pánkòu) is an ornamental braiding for fastening the front of a garment that consists of a button and a loop through which it passes. It is often considered as a distinctive feature of traditional Chinese apparel. Even today, it is still highly visible on garments like Qipao, or cheongsam. Though normally associated with tradition, the knot buttons are currently enjoying renewed popularity.
In Weixi Village, Cixi, Mo Lijun, a craftswoman, is 52 years old this year. Over the past 20 years, she has devoted herself to the skill of making knot button, and her clothes with knot buttons have gone viral on social media.
Mo remembers when she was a child, many Cixi women were good at making knot buttons. After she married, she learned to make knot buttons to support her husband's career in the antiques industry. She also learned how to cut cloth and scrape pulp from her aunt, who was a seamstress.
Knot buttons are made with great emphasis on style design and color matching. When making women's clothes, buttons matched should be more delicate. Mo said it is better to use real silk to make the cloth with which knot bottoms are used. It looks more exquisite, as she put it.
Not only so, with these buttons, the cheongsam looks even more vivid and a step more towards perfection with a sense of artistic pleasure.
The type of knot buttons varies. It takes three or four days to make complex buttons, while the simple ones can be completed in a day. "The buttons are in pairs, like the cheongsam, there are more than 10 pairs of buttons," she said.
In Cixi, few people specialize in making knot buttons. Although beginners can start very quickly, the design and production of good buttons need experience. In the eyes of Mo, knot buttons are not only folk handicraft, but also a symbol of Chinese traditional dress culture. At present, she is preparing for the application of intangible cultural heritage project. To better preserve and popularize the skills, Mo is also looking for successors.
By Dong Na