Missing buttons
Also: lost buttons · absent fasteners
Missing buttons are fasteners that have fallen off a shirt, coat, or cardigan, leaving empty thread shanks or bare holes where they belong. They interrupt closure, are easy to overlook on a spare cuff button, and count under functional elements because they affect whether the garment can be worn as designed.
How to replace a missing button properly
- 1Check the inside seam first. Most shirts and coats carry a spare stitched into the placket or the lining.
- 2If there is no spare, take a button from the lowest point of the shirt, where it tucks in and is never seen, and put the odd one there.
- 3Sew with doubled thread, and put a matchstick across the button as you stitch so it ends with a shank. A button sewn flat against the fabric will not sit or fasten properly.
- 4Wrap the thread six times around the shank before you finish. That wrap is what stops the next one falling off.
Stopping it happening again
Buttons go because the thread abrades, not because the button fails. When one starts to loosen, resew all of them; the rest are the same age.
How to spot it
- Count buttons against buttonholes — one extra hole means one is gone
- Check the spare-button pocket and cuff plackets, where losses hide
- Look for loose, dangling buttons that will be missing on arrival
Grade impact
Missing buttons are graded under Functional Elements (15%). A single missing spare or interior button is minor and stays near Very Good (7); a missing front or cuff button that stops the garment closing properly pushes it to Good (6) or Fair (5).
Fixability
Easily fixed and often worth it. A matching replacement, or moving a spare from an inside seam, restores function and grade. Mismatched replacements should themselves be disclosed as non-original.
How to disclose it
State which button is gone ('missing second-from-top front button') and whether a spare is included. Buyers forgive a disclosed missing button; a photo that hides the gap does not.
Missing buttons — frequently asked
- How much does one missing button lower the grade?
- A single missing interior or spare button is minor and barely moves the grade. A missing functional front or cuff button that stops the garment closing as designed is weighed under Functional Elements and drops it toward Good or Fair.
What if it does not all come out?
Most of the time some of it stays, and the leftover is what a buyer sees. A garment is worth what its condition says it is worth, so the sensible next question is how much this particular flaw moves the number.
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