The Delight is in The Detail

The Delight is in The Detail
There's little doubt that in life it's thesmall things that matter. Perhaps that's because the bigger picture is never simply big, but more of a jigsaw. So it's in the details that we decide whether something, or even someone, should be part of our own broader canvas.

It's the same in fashion: details count. So this season, as clothing trends have heralded a return to all things luxurious, from embellishing to luscious fabrics, we are once again seeing the rise to prominence of that most humble of details, the button.

"I think designers are looking (as always) at ways to entice us to buy more of what we already have," says Natalie Massenet, founder of the on- line store Net-a-Porter.com. "And in our 'anything goes' mood, a time when individual style is championed, where hemlines are anyone's call, I suppose they look to the details. Do you really need another cardigan? But one with diamant� buttons becomes irresistible, and it lets people know, 'Hey, I might be wearing another cardigan, but it's this season's cardigan'."

More than that, a designer's button choice can lift an outfit, change a mood, and give a clever twist to the traditional. So when Dolce and Gabbana placed diamant� buttons on tweed coats for their D&G diffusion range, they banished any Miss Marple connotations with every disc they added. Equally, when