Should I change the buttons on this dress? Poll included 💜

[Flomasterina]

I bought a dress from Hobbs last year which is perfect for my new modest dress code job. I love the colour, but was not sure about the gold buttons from the start. I mostly wear it with a textured Reiss black blazer (aircon) as this is the only blazer I have that works, others are navy. Next summer I am going to get the light colour blazer which will be an alternative. The black blazer also has gold buttons on cuffs and a single on the front, they look great. But overall too many gold buttons. I have asked ChatGPT to change the buttons to purple and I think they look better, though I would look for perfect match or darker. What do others think? I have added a poll just because I saw that it’s possible and never tried it before.

Any chance of a pic?
Edit: ah sorry, it's appeared now.

I like the gold buttons - they lift the dress. Just get a simple edge-to-edge jacket with no buttons to wear with it instead?

I didn't expect to like the gold, but I do - they really make the dress crisper and more stylish.

I agree with pp - choose a simple jacket without buttons. Perhaps charcoal grey.

If budget is an issue, have a look on Vinted?

I would be tempted to do something fancy instead, flower buttons or different colours, lots of lovely buttons around but i get thats just me.

I don't like the gold buttons at all

Purple or neutral wood, maybe. I really don’t like the gold.

Don’t have child like flower buttons on a smart dress. For me, I’d go muted silver though. The mauve ones look like granny cardigan buttons. A silver/pewter would look better and less”regal”.

If you want something different I would choose buttons that still give a contrast effect. My choice would probably depend on what I'd be wearing the dress with. Wooden buttons (beech?) would be fairly versatile, but there's loads of options. A mother of pearl finish would work well with a light-coloured blazer and should be OK with your current black blazer.

The purple buttons make it look granny ish.

Agree that they're child-like - might be quite nice on a chunky cardigan though! But not on the dress ...

Oh don’t talk such ageist bollocks!

Eye roll. Are you always so literal? It looks like something my grandmother would have worn about 50 years ago so extremely dated to wear now. I wouldn’t describe it as 50 years out of date because even in the 1970s it was the kind of dress worn almost exclusively by older women. The gold buttons stop it looking like it - becomes more Grandmacore than granny ish. There is a difference.

The gold buttons are 1980s to me (and not in a good way), so you'd probably describe them as great aunt-ish?

I think that's a pretty much word perfect demonstration of @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie's point. You could have described the look as 'out of date' but instead you used 'grannyish', not in a neutral way but as a put down.

I can see you're irritated at being pulled up on what, to you, probably seems like a small thing. But it happens relentlessly on this board. It's fucking tedious and it sends out unwelcoming vibes out to anyone in that demographic.

s it better if I described it like something that my granny would have worn in the 1970s? Because it is. If so then let me rephrase it to that.

You also shouldn’t make judgements about people’s age. I’m old enough to be a granny, plenty of them my age (mid 50s) where I live. Just not one who was a granny in the 1970s.

@WrinklesShminkles80s and 90s are back in apparently. I am a huge clothes hoarder (mainly because I look after them well) and DD has raided my 80s and 90s stash recently.

I did wonder what a “modest” dress code is though. Aren’t most office dress codes modest? Or are we talking a more extreme version of modesty that shows as little female flesh as possible?

I’m a prolific changer of buttons and would change these, no question. I always think
gold buttons have a tendency to cheapen clothes.

@EleanorMc67 Buttons, when in a prominent position do matter. I have to say I’ve just bought a tweed blazer with gold hammered buttons. I’ve not bought anything with gold buttons for a while but it’s spot on becayse the tweed is muted neutrals. For purple, I do think a pewter works well. Less shouty.

I’m over 70. I absolutely do not wear what my mum did! I’ve tons more style - if I say so myself! DM liked pastel hand knits with similar coloured buttons. Most grandmas in my age group know how to dress with a bit of class!

It was a bit 80s Versace to have gold buttons but DM would not have known who Gianni Versace was! Grannies really are not all the same!

s it better if I described it like something that my granny would have worn in the 1970s? Because it is. If so then let me rephrase it to that.
For me, yes. I wouldn't object to that in the slightest because it's a description. It's when the word is used purely as an insult or as a synonym for 'out of date' that I get pissed off.

You also shouldn’t make judgements about people’s age. I’m old enough to be a granny, plenty of them my age (mid 50s) where I live. Just not one who was a granny in the 1970s.
Mid 50s is what I guessed your age to be from the context.

The dress itself isn’t exactly cutting edge, whatever colour the buttons are. To me, gold makes it look very 80s, which is fine if one likes it, but I don’t. Purple (to my mind) gives it a wee bit more of a 40s vibe.

I too like the idea of wooden buttons. Or mother-of-pearl if you get darker ones. Not at all keen on the original gold.

I like muted gold, never super-shiny gold anything.

Buttons are one of the easiest & most effective ways to make an inexpensive piece of clothing look better, IMO. Or improve the look of something with buttons that you don't especially like. It makes a really big difference to a piece of clothing, & I'm surprised that more people don't seem to do it. I buy vintage buttons from charity shops/eBay/Vinted, if I spot really lovely/unusual ones.

So many threads are so very snippy right now! Surely we can all agree that a different aesthetic viewpoint to our own (on leopard print, buttons, or Carvela trainers - whatever seems to be setting so many off!!) is also valid? Even if we don't like it personally??!!!!

There are many people, whose style I admire, that wear clothes that I would not (& sometimes might even dislike). But it's the sheer élan with which they dress that draws me in. And often causes me to look at a label, a shape, a colour combination differently.

Is there a full moon right now or something ...?!!!

Ask chatgpt to change the buttons to a rich wood. I quite like that idea

Big fan of changing buttons. I bought a navy peacoat last winter that had hideous gold anchor buttons. Changed them for navy and sewed on with scarlet thread to give it a lift. Many compliments.

So, yes to changing the buttons but you need to find the right ones. Agree that ChatGPT has demonstrated that it is clueless about buttons!

I have a couple of Hobbs dresses with those buttons (albeit only a couple in one case and on the one where they are placed like yours they’re smaller). I like them and think the fact they’re matte means they don’t look 80s in real life. They’re both navy in my case though and the purple gives a slightly different vibe. I still like the gold though and I’m not a glitzy, blingy type at all.

I personally find the purple rendering looks matchy-matchy and dowdy so really wouldn’t be my choice to change to. I’d try rendering some of the other suggestions to see if they look more modern.