KOUMPOUNOPHOBIA - THE FATAL FEAR OF BUTTONS

Koumpounophobia- can you say this word without twisting your tongue into a knot?

Koumpounophobia is a complicated word for the fear of phobia of buttons. If you suffer from this phobia it's probably best to stop reading now because this post is going to be all about buttons.

I am a real button-lover so I suppose I suffer from koumphounomania instead - a manic fascination with buttons. The only problem is, it seems that koumphounomani is not actually a real word.... But Koumpounophobia is a real word and it is estimated to affect around 0.001% of the world's population. That may not sound like very many people but it adds up to around 83 000 people roughly the same as the entire population of Ibiza or a packed Wembley Stadium.

It must be pretty awful to have a phobia of buttons - they're everywhere: on shirts, trousers, coats, doorbells, computers, phones... You simply can't escape them. They're everywhere. Everywhere!

Steve Jobs is said to have been one of the people who sufferd from koumpounophobia. He had a strong aversion to buttons and it is said that this was one of the reasons that inspired hit to develop the iPhone.

It is interesting to think that something as the iPhone may have been developed, at least partly, out of a phobia. When you think about it, there must be countless things that have their roots in discomfort and fear. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all. And if you look att pictures of Steve Jobs it's pretty clear that turtleneck was his favourite choice of clothing. Shirts with all those annoying buttons were clearly not his thing.

I am clearly not like Steve Jobs when it comes to buttons. I just love buttons and I sometimes replace the buttons on old shirts with new colorful ones. Suddenly the shirt feels brand new again. And, as far as I'm concerned, the more colourful the button, the better.

I've always had a thing for buttons. Just look at this dress, which I made as a teenager and covered in silver buttons. I absolutely loved this dress and here it is in a magazine feature from what feels like a thousand years ago, photographed by the Swedish fashion photographer Olle Bogren.

And if you're wondering where I got all those buttons, I'd suppose I'd better come clean; most of them somehow found their way into my school bag after handicraft class... but that was a very, very long time ago so I'm sure the statue of limitations has expired by now...

During the second world war some people found a rather unusual way to amuse themselves: Asking soldier for buttons straight off their uniforms. The soilders weree charmed with sweets, flattering words and tempting promises, and were persuades to unbutton one of the buttons they were wearing and hand it over. It seems quite a few soldiers have lost their buttons. And judging with all their attention, perhaps even their trousers! I've never managed to score a button from a soldier but I've have had medal adorned hats from sea captains come my way - but that's another story...