SUPPLY CHAIN STORIES: BUTTONS
It's about the small things
Sometimes it's the small things, that make a DRYKORN piece exactly that. Sometimes it's even something as small as a button – a detail usually taken for granted but one that many people work on and that goes through a lot of production steps before it is finally attached to one of our garments.
Origin & materials
Most of our buttons are made in Germany. We work with three established family businesses – companies that either manufacture entirely in Germany or finish their buttons here.
Also, the majority of our buttons are made from natural materials: Corozo, real horn, and mother-of-pearl. Plastic buttons? A rare occasion. For select styles we also source buttons made from metal – for example for our denims. The raw material for our metal buttons is usually industrial scrap metal, making metal buttons a result of circular waste systems.
Our partners – expert family businesses
Berning, Wuppertal
The name Berning stands for technical expertise and modern button craftsmanship. The family business from Wuppertal manufactures metal buttons, rivets, and fasteners, not only for the fashion industry but also for the automotive sector. State-of-the-art equipment, craftsmanship, and decades of experience come together at Berning. Production takes place in Germany, with a clear focus on quality and durability.
Schäfer-Bodo Jagdberg, Aschaffenburg
Since 2025, the two long-standing, traditional companies Knopf Schäfer and Bodo Jagdberg have been pooling their expertise under a common name. Both family businesses from Aschaffenburg have decades of experience in the manufacture of high-quality fashion buttons – especially when it comes to corozo. The dried corozo seeds are sourced from Ecuador and are first processed into blanks in Italy. The finishing touches – such as engraving or dyeing – are then carried out entirely in Germany.
Rosenfelder Knopffabrik, Rosenfeld
Rosenfelder is a traditional family business located between the Black Forest and the Swabian jura. With outstanding craftsmanship and expertise, Rosenfelder has made a name for itself among international luxury labels. All production takes place in Germany. The range of materials used extends from natural materials such as horn, mother-of-pearl, corozo, and wood to high-quality, bio-based plastics.
Responsibility is in the details
Our collaboration with these three family businesses is based on long-standing partnerships, trust, and a shared understanding of quality. This ensures that all processes remain traceable and that high-end craftmanship is prioritized at all times.
Buttons may seem small or even inconspicuous, but they embody the very essence of fashion: experience, mindfulness, and caring for even the minutest of details to create a truly unique garment. It's this type of care that goes into every DRYKORN piece – from the very first idea all the way to the final product.
Deep Dive: Corozo - plant-based ivory
The tagua nut is the name for the seeds of six different palm tree species under the genus Phytelephas, which grows in the northern rainforests of Ecuador and in the southern jungle region of Colombia. These palm trees bear large, chestnut-like fruits, whose seeds are used for button production. In the fashion industry, tagua is valued for its durability and fine, dense structure – properties that make it robust, dimensionally stable, and pleasant to the touch. Because of its ivory-like color and grain, it is also called "vegetable ivory"
Buttons growing on trees
Several steps are necessary to turn a tagua nut into a button: after harvest, the nuts are dried in the sun and then sawn into slices. They are then lathed into discs, and shaped into the final shape of the button before getting polished. If desired, they are engraved before dyeing, for example with the name of the fashion company. The blanks are then soaked in water, causing them to swell by around 30% – this way it's ensured that the color gets absorbed evenly in the subsequent dyeing process. After dyeing, the buttons are fixed and dried, causing them to shrink back to their original size. Finally, each finished button undergoes careful quality control.
Corozo and its impact
Corozo palm trees cannot be cultivated in monocultures and their seeds are mainly harvested and collected as an additional agricultural product by smallholder farmers. Therefore, corozo benefits local communities while preserving biodiversity. Truth be told though: smallholder farmers in countries where the tagua nut grows cannot make a living from italone, as market prices are too low.1 On the other hand, the low market price for corozo has a positive effect: the material is sometimes less expensive than plastic and is therefore often the first choice even for strictly cost-oriented purchasing. In addition, the tagua nut's natural quality, patterns and individual color shades can hardly be imitated artificially. Therefore, every corozo button is truly unique.
FOR BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS.
1 Teixidor-Toneu, Irene, Olivier Dangles, Thomas Auffray, Dunia González Zeas, Anne-Gaël Bilhaut, and Rommel Montúfar (2023) Following a Button: A transdisciplinary journey. The Ethnobotanical Assembly, 9. [online] Available at: <https://tea-assembly.com/issues/9/following-a-button>
12/2025