The Button Queen...

I had said to Peter that when we went to London I wanted to get some nice gold buttons for the blazer that I had made in Penang. Peter mentioned he knew of a little button store that might just have the sort of buttons I was after: The Button Queen in Marylebone Lane, just north of Oxford St.

Peter had thought of The Button Queen, as many of the formerly grand haberdashery departments in London are on the rapid decline (despite what I was told recently: that the youth of Britain were showing more of an interest in traditional home crafts with yarn sales up by 35% from previous years last year). John Lewis used to have a great selection, but over the past 5 years has downsized significantly (as well as putting their prices up at a time when most high street stores are becoming more competitive!). But I digress - we found this store and it did not disappoint.

We had already meandered across our door knockers a few shops down, and were later to find a great delicatessen called Paul Rothe & Son, where we had a delightful morning tea before marching onward through Mayfair on another power shopping mission.

I ended up finding some lovely 'Diamond Jubilee' buttons in 24 carat gold pate, manufactured by Benson and Clegg (of Piccadilly Arcade, although we did not know this at the time).

Our Fabulous hostess, Veronica (who happened to be attending the same wedding that we were) very kindly replaced all the buttons on my blazer with the new ones while we were tootling round the countryside, which was a wonderful surprise to come back to. She will always be our button queen!

Above: Front Buttons

Below: Cuff Buttons

Every navy blazer looks just that little bit more special with gold buttons! ...