Katy’s Button King is selling his trove of one-of-a-kind designs

Dan Gorelick estimates that he owns hundreds of thousands of buttons. His impressive collection, boasting glass buttons made in the Czech Republic and unusual styles from India, dates back to the 1940s. Houston’s self-proclaimed “Button King” once operated a manufacturing business in the New York City area, where he produced women’s clothing for retailers such as JCPenney and Sears. It was industry practice at the time, Gorelick says, for button dealers to offer exclusive styles to manufacturers like himself, so that their clothing designs would be one of a kind. Over his decades in business, Gorelick — who later owned a supply store for dressmakers and tailors after he relocated to the Houston area — amassed a trove, never getting rid of the samples he received and developing “a liking for unique buttons.” Gorelick, 80, got his industry training taking evening classes in grading, pattern-making and design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design. He shares stories of young designers with whom he crossed paths, such as Anne Klein and Donna Karan. At age 18, Gorelick says he became the youngest member of the cutters union, following the career path of his father. “I’ve done everything in the garment industry,” he says. “It was in my blood, I guess.” In the ’60s and ’70s, many of Gorelick’s industry peers shuttered their businesses because of a rise in imports, he says. Gorelick began going door to door in Manhattan’s Garment District, negotiating deals for boxes of unused buttons because he didn’t want the supply to be thrown out. He also went to manufacturer auctions, where he bought buttons by the truckload. Because the buttons he bought were exclusive to the garment manufacturer who had once owned them, he says, no two boxes in his collection are alike. In one lot at an auction, he says, he might have left with 10,000 buttons, without first viewing the contents. “I’m selling something that no one else in the world sells,” says Gorelick who, now in “semiretirement,” operates a shop inside Cinco Ranch’s Painted Tree Boutiques, a collective. While the majority of his buttons were made in the United States, including wooden and glass pearl styles, his collection includes rare two-piece and three-piece buttons from Paris that are snapped together for use. “You can’t make stuff like that anymore because it’s too costly,” he says. He also has metal buttons in unusual shapes, such as a ram’s head, shell or cowboy boot. A midcentury daisy has a different color stone for each petal. Oversized square and geometric buttons in loud colors evoke shoulder-padded fashions of the ’80s. He has bins of milk glass and carnival glass buttons. Some buttons have exquisite detailing, such as a cluster of tiny rhinestones in the center. He counts his glass buttons from the Czech Republic as precious. Some of his fabric-covered buttons are more than 100 years old. Also in Gorelick’s collection are reams of 100 percent cotton lace edged with metallic thread, ribbons and other vintage trims. He has yards of fabrics, such as remnants of 16 ounce heavyweight denim he acquired from Lee, the jeans label. Just how many buttons does he own? “There’s no way of me knowing,” he says. “Buttons are small, no one knows how many are in a box. And I have boxes I can’t lift.” From their home in a senior living community in Katy, Gorelick and his wife, Charlotte, a cancer survivor, bag and price each button to be sold at his store. “We stay busy,” says Gorelick. “I price them very fairly.” A bag of a dozen buttons starts at $1. Among the rarest, a set of four carnival glass buttons sells for $6. Customers who seek him out often are crafters who use the vintage buttons to make earrings, bracelets and brooches or buy them to cover picture frames, art frames and vases. “I appreciate when someone else likes what I like,” says Gorelick, a conversationalist who engages shoppers by assuring them the buttons they’re browsing are the only ones of their kind. “‘That’s an unbelievable statement,’” they tell him. “‘How could you say that? The world is a big place.’” Gorelick explains that the buttons were one-of-a-kind samples from his days in New York City garment-making. If you can find that button or something similar on the internet, you can have it for free, he tells the skeptics. “They’ll be standing there for 20 minutes” scrolling unsuccessfully on their phones, he says with a chuckle. The Gorelicks, who have great-grandchildren living near them in the Katy area, recently sold their large warehouse and the property on which it sits, prompting Gorelick to part with much of his collection. “I have to start winding down now,” says Gorelick, who has donated large amounts of fabric to local charities. He estimates he has 50,000 yards remaining. “I have to close my eyes, my wife says, because I love my stuff and I remember when I bought it all.” Cataloging the buttons means surprises and memories along the way. “I bought boxes of buttons that I didn’t know what was inside,” he says. “I still have boxes I haven’t opened.” Allison Bagley is a Houston-based writer. - A Houston love story: When the mayor’s daughter met a Captain - Some of the best bands skip Houston for Dallas and Austin. 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Katy’s Button King is selling his trove of one-of-a-kind designs

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