{"id":234301,"date":"2023-06-06T11:39:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T10:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=234301"},"modified":"2023-06-06T18:48:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:48:00","slug":"courtney-co-brings-horn-button-making-back-to-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/courtney-co-brings-horn-button-making-back-to-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtney & Co brings horn button-making back to the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtney & Co<\/a><\/span>, the Cotswold-based button-maker, is bringing horn button making back to the UK offering\u00a0more options for brands and designers looking to produce a fully \"made in the UK\" garment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The news comes 10 years after Courtney & Co\u2019s founders rescued rescued the machinery and the heritage patterns of the UK\u2019s last remaining large-scale producer of horn buttons, James Grove & Sons, which had collapsed in 2012 after\u00a0155 years of trading. Britain had once had a thriving button-making industry, but one by one the manufacturers closed as fashion brands and retailers sourced cheaper products from overseas.<\/p>\n

Since acquiring the business the Courtney & Co founders have been focused on not only preserving the British button industry, but also ensuring it is fit for the future by investing in skills, updating equipment and launching new products.<\/p>\n

\"Courtney<\/p>\n

From its base in Bourton-on-the-Water, Courtney & Co has slowly expanded its operations using a blend of traditional methods and new technology to create buttons made from some of the most eco-friendly and sustainable materials available. It has taken a decade to relaunch the natural horn buttons for which the former James Grove factory was famous.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that James Grove was the last of its kind, we have had to learn everything from scratch and train our employees how to turn, finish and dye buttons of different types,\u201d explained Andrea Courtney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with Corozo (tagua nut) and sold our first buttons at the end of 2016. Two years later, in 2018, we launched a new range of buttons made from Codelite\u00ae (milk casein) \u2013 a material which hadn\u2019t been used in British button-making in 45 years. But it has taken us another five years to launch our natural horn button range \u2013 which means that we are finally making buttons in the material which made James Grove famous around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe materials and price points are such that we are aiming at the luxury\/affordable luxury segment of the fashion world \u2013 not just tailoring and fashion houses; our customers also embrace umbrella makers and makers of duvets and bedding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t