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Question for the shirt experts

FIHTies

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YEAH YEAH YEAH - Turn it off. DO IT DO IT DO IT... That's one vote for thinking before you push the button.
Nasty Man...
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Every one deserves a second (third, fourth, etc..) chance Â
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JJF EDIT: Ya know what? Just turn off Mr. Kabbaz's edit abilities
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Brian SD

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Regime change starts at the Styleforum. Call over the UN, we need to get this privaledge-removing dictator out of power.
 

j

(stands for Jerk)
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It's for your own good, citizen.

Check out my Prada jackboots.
 

Tokyo Slim

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hilarious.
 

BjornH

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(Brian SD @ 07 Dec. 2004, 9:09) I throw most of my dress shirts in the wash (favorites are handwashed, however), and let them hang dry till only slightly damp, at which point I iron them.
Do you get alot of shrinkage that way?
I use the same method as Brian does, except I let the shirts dry completely. To compensate for that I use very little spin and stretch the seams gently. I use a regular frontloader and have never had problems. My shirts shrink a bit during the first washes but only to their true size anyway. The culprit could be the commercial washing machine. Its drum has a much larger diameter than your regular frontloader and therefore the shirts have a much longer fall from the top to the bottom of the drum. He could buy himself a washing machine or put more shirts into each load to cushion the fall. B
 

stache

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It makes sense if women are encouraged to sleep in their pearls ( in order to keep them supplied with body oil) that a mop button would get dried out and crack eventually regardless of qualtiy.
 

FIHTies

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I use the same method as Brian does, except I let the shirts dry completely. To compensate for that I use very little spin and stretch the seams gently.  I use a regular frontloader and have never had problems. My shirts shrink a bit during the first washes but only to their true size anyway.
Letting them dry completely I imagine decreases the risk of shrinkage as when the fibers are wet and then they are heated up that would (i believe) shrink them.

Thats why I wondered if Brian got shrinkage from heating with an Iron his shirts.

JJF
 

naturlaut

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Could someone please for the last time tell me the differences between MOP and troca? I have seen them side-by-side, heard different stories from people in the industry, but never one solid answer. Please enlighten me. I recently purchase a bulk of troca shell buttons collected from the coastal areas of Japan. They are cut into 4mm thick buttons, white with a very slight hint of yellowish tint, no rough outshell at the back. What do you think of these?
DSC05080.jpg
Left to right: front view, back view, side view
 

Shirtmaven

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Sleeping in their pearls. I have heard that one.

The feeling of dipping your hand into a box of pearl buttons is kind of sensuous. Cool and smooth. I never thought of enticing one of my girlfriends into a bed full of buttons. Whoops. I better get back to business soon.

Every once in a while someone will bring me a set of pearl buttons that they have cut off of an old shirt. They might be beautiful, but they are usually worn down. Plastic buttons never wear down. Those ugly ceramic buttons will last through the next ice age.
 

BjornH

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Re: MOP and troca.

I've sort of gathered that they are the products of different types of shell. Some shells will give you MOP while others contain troca.

I must admit that while it's a good feeling to have natural buttons on a shirt, a troca button is just as good as a plastic button to me. It is really hard to tell the difference and troca buttons will only hurt your child when it slides along your front, opposed to plastic ones. MOP on the other hand look great and there is no mistaking them for plastic.

B
 

Alexander Kabbaz

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Naturlaut
Could someone please for the last time tell me the differences between MOP and troca? I have seen them side-by-side, heard different stories from people in the industry, but never one solid answer. Please enlighten me.
Mother-of-Pearl buttons are made ONLY from Oyster Shells (see my photos on previous page). Pearls come from oysters; hence oysters are the 'mothers' of pearl(s). Although I have seen a few other shells which have the luminescent qualities of M-O-P, none are thick enough for making buttons. In short, there is NO shell which equals the look of real M-O-P. "Troca" is catchall slang for any (usually white or whitish) shell which is thick enough to make into a button. All shells have some sort of luminescense - with oysters being at the top of the heap. The shell usually used for troca is the Conch shell. If you think about it, due to the fact that a conch spirals inward, there is a heck of a lot of shell there. stache
It makes sense if women are encouraged to sleep in their pearls ( in order to keep them supplied with body oil) that a mop button would get dried out and crack eventually regardless of qualtiy.
My most precious buttons are a few hundred I have which were made in the mid-1800's in Muscatine, Iowa by a group of settlers who were actually ex-pat Europeans whose trade in the old country had been hand-carving buttons. My first girlfriend has dried out. My ex has dried out. My Muscatine buttons haven't "dried out" yet. Maybe it is because they've been sleeping with each other for 150 years?
 

masterfred

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I used to live not too far from Muscatine, IA, which was known in the the 1800s as the "Pearl Button Capital of the World." Unfortunately, the trade dried up as the mussels were badly "overfished." The town has a small museum dedicated to this aspect of their history. And yes, some of those buttons still look great - nice and thick. Most were destined at that time for use in womens' clothing, esp. decorative stays, hand-carved buttons, and cameo accents.
 

masterfred

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Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you..... http://www.pearlbuttoncapital.com Probably isn't quite what you're looking for, but maybe they can steer you in the right direction....
 

Alexander Kabbaz

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Actually, masterfred, that was really cool. Thank you very much.
 

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