Button number: 92

Name: Nessa Hides

Age: 50

Entry: August 2005, Blandford Forum

 

I think I have always loved buttons, the warmth and feel of the toggles on your first duffle coat to the cold crispness of glass buttons on a blouse or dress.

Starry buttons on light fabrics, you know you have buttons on them.

Mixed buttons on party dresses as a child caused me some distress to the point where I couldn’t go to the party. My mother thought it irrational and I thought it made me look poor. Now I don’t give a fig and change buttons on garments to my own liking and fancy. I don’t worry about them matching. It is the colour, material and texture that counts.

Actually some buttons had quite a nice taste to them too-you know when you suck them in a moment of absent mindedness or distress.

The button tin always holds a memory and has a particular magic- usually quite large and holding many sorts. That’s the thing about buttons, they have secrets.