Suit Buttons Explained: Horn, Corozo, Mother-of-Pearl and Metal

Buttons are the smallest parts of a suit and among the easiest to judge. A jacket with real horn buttons tells you the maker spent money where few people look, and a set of shiny plastic ones is often the first thing a good tailor would change. Below: what suit buttons are made of, how to tell the materials apart in your hand, which ones suit which garment, what sizes a suit uses and how to replace them.

What are suit buttons made of?

Good tailoring uses natural materials, mainly horn and corozo, with mother-of-pearl, metal and leather for particular jackets. Most ready-to-wear suits use plastic resin, often molded and dyed to look like horn. Plastic is not a fault on its own: it is strong, cheap and made in every color. Natural buttons simply look richer up close and age better, and they are one of the clearest small signs of how much care went into a suit.

What are horn buttons?

Horn buttons are cut from animal horn, most often water buffalo and sometimes cattle. The horn is a by-product of the meat and leather trades. Most high-end horn buttons are made in Italy by a small group of specialist makers, who cut flat blanks into shape, drill them and finish them. Because horn grows in layers, every button shows its own swirls and shading, from pale honey through mid-brown to near black. A set of horn buttons is matched by eye, not stamped out identically.

Horn comes polished or matte. English bespoke tailors have traditionally favored unpolished horn, which has a soft, almost dusty finish. Italian tailors more often use polished or semi-polished horn, or corozo. Neither is more correct. The most prized buffalo horn is a variegated mid-brown streaked with honey and chocolate; it comes from near the tip of the horn, makes up a small share of supply and costs about twice as much as plain colors.

What are corozo buttons?

Corozo, also called tagua or vegetable ivory, is the dried seed of a tropical palm (Phytelephas) that grows wild in South America, mainly in Ecuador and Colombia. The inside of the seed is hard, dense and cream-colored, and it polishes to a finish that resembles ivory. It takes dye readily, so corozo buttons come in almost any color, usually with a smooth matte or satin surface and a faint grain under the light.

Corozo was once a major button material. In the 1920s about a fifth of all buttons made in the United States were tagua, before plastics took over in the 1930s and 1940s. The trade revived from the 1990s, and today corozo is a favorite of many Italian tailors for suit buttons. It softens if left soaking for a long time and hardens again as it dries, so normal wear does it no harm, though some dyed colors can fade a little over the years.

How can you tell horn from corozo and plastic?

You can identify most buttons in about a minute with your fingers and a window. No single check is proof, so use several together, and compare the buttons on the same jacket with each other.

When are mother-of-pearl buttons used on suits?

Mother-of-pearl is the iridescent nacre that lines the inside of oyster, mussel and trochus shells. It is the classic button on a good dress shirt. On tailoring it appears more rarely: on summer suits and jackets in linen, cotton or light wool, on cream and white jackets, and on some waistcoats. Smoked mother-of-pearl, a darker gray-brown shell, gives the same shimmer in a shade that sits better on mid-gray, tan or navy.

Shell is cold, heavy and hard, but it can crack under a careless press or a rough dry clean. If a jacket has mother-of-pearl buttons, point them out and ask the cleaner to protect them.

When should a jacket have metal buttons?

Metal buttons, in brass, gilt or a silver tone, are what make a navy jacket a blazer. They are often embossed with a crest, an anchor or a textured pattern, and almost all fasten with a shank, a small loop on the back, instead of holes. They suit the naval style of a double-breasted blazer. On a business suit they look out of place, because they turn the suit jacket into something closer to a blazer and it stops looking right with its matching trousers.

Two other materials have narrower jobs. Leather buttons, woven or molded over a core, belong on tweed sport coats and country jackets. Covered buttons, wrapped in the same silk satin or grosgrain as the lapel facings, are the standard on a dinner jacket; see our black tie guide. Our comparison of suit vs blazer vs sport coat shows how buttons help set each jacket apart.

What size buttons does a suit use?

Buttons are measured in lignes, an old unit still used across the trade. There are 40 lignes to the inch, so one ligne is about 0.64 mm, and the size is the button's diameter. It is written with an L: 32L means 32 lignes, about 20 mm across. The chart shows the usual ranges for each position on a suit, with a shirt and an overcoat for comparison.

Count before you buy replacements. A single-breasted two-button suit needs two front buttons and eight sleeve buttons, four per cuff. A three-button jacket needs three front buttons. A six-button double-breasted jacket needs six front buttons plus a flat inside anchor button, sometimes called the jigger button, that holds the underneath panel in place. Trousers add a waistband button or two, back pocket buttons, and six brace buttons if they are cut for braces.

How are suit buttons sewn on?

Men's tailoring traditionally uses four-hole buttons, sewn either in two parallel bars or in a cross. The pattern is house style; what matters is that every button on the garment matches. Front buttons are sewn with a shank, a short stem of thread wrapped tightly between the button and the fabric. The shank lifts the button so the thick front edge of the jacket can sit flat underneath it when fastened. Without one, the buttonhole bunches and the button strains at its threads.

Sleeve buttons on a non-working cuff are usually sewn almost flat, since they never pass through a buttonhole. On a working cuff they need a short shank like the front buttons. Metal blazer buttons already have a shank, so they are sewn through the loop on the back. Our step-by-step guide shows how to sew a button on a suit at home.

Should you replace the buttons on a suit?

Swapping plastic buttons for horn or corozo is one of the cheapest visible upgrades you can make to a ready-to-wear suit. It does nothing for the fit, but it changes how the suit looks up close. New buttons can also change a jacket's character. Contrasting buttons, such as mid-brown horn on a navy jacket, make a suit jacket easier to wear on its own with odd trousers, especially in a textured or patterned fabric.

As of 2026, genuine horn suit buttons cost about $2.50 to $6 each, so a set for a two-button suit runs about $25 to $60. A tailor typically charges about $2 to $5 per button to sew them on, and more for working cuffs. Our guide to suit alteration costs lists other common prices.

Which button color goes with which suit?

The safe rule is to match the buttons to the fabric or go slightly darker. Contrast is a deliberate choice that makes a jacket look more casual and more like a sport coat.

What do buttons tell you about a suit's quality?

Buttons are a clue, not a verdict. Horn or corozo on a ready-to-wear suit suggests the maker cared about details, but plenty of excellent suits have been let down by cheap buttons and fixed for a few dollars. Look at how the buttons are attached as well as what they are made of. A firm thread shank on the front buttons, tidy stitches in a matching color and neatly finished keyhole buttonholes all point to good work.

Hand-sewn buttonholes are covered in our guide to Milanese buttonholes and pick stitching, and the other signs of good work are in 10 signs of a high-quality suit.

Once the buttons are right, use them correctly: our guide to which buttons to fasten covers every jacket from one-button to double-breasted. If you would rather choose every detail with a cutter, start with our ranking of the best tailors in London.

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