School of life

JACKET, GONE

“It was my first term at art college in the 1970s and I had a new, bright blue felt jacket with yellow buttons. That morning I hurried to catch the bus for the life drawing class and a button came off my jacket. With no time to sew it back on I left it in a saucer on my desk. Later, we went for a coffee break and I nonchalantly left my blue jacket on my easel in the classroom.

“On my return it had gone. I was surprised, not expecting that people on my course would do such a thing. So the yellow button reminds me that I was foolish and naïve – an 18-year-old away from home for the first time.”

A CROATIAN STORY

“This big button was once attached to a jacket from the national costume worn in Sini, a small town near Split in Croatia. Sini still has a Venetian fortress that was the last defence against the Turks, who never quite managed to conquer the town or reach its shores.

“The button was given to me by our maid, who was from that area. She was only 14 when she came to work for us, a poor, uneducated country girl (this was in the 1950s). When we asked her to lay the table (the word we use in Croatian is ‘mend’) she indignantly replied that the table was fine and in no need of repair! She stayed with us until she married and her life changed, but we remained friends and I still treasure the button she gave me.”

MY SCHOOL BLAZER

“This button was once attached to my school blazer. To save money, my mother would always buy clothes that were much too big for me. In winter I didn’t need gloves because the sleeves were so long that they kept my hands warm.

“I wore the blazer from the age of 11 until I left school at 16.”

EDUCATION INSPIRATION

“This button belongs to some old jeans which I started decorating with patchwork during the lockdown last year.

“I enjoyed this task so much that I resolved then and there to go back to college to get my art degree – and that’s exactly what I did. I’ve loved every minute of it.”