The invention belongs to the field of digital image processing and pattern recognition, particularly relates to a method for extracting fractal detail feature for representing a fabric texture, comprising the following steps of: solving basic transverse and longitudinal cycle periods of a fabric texture image by adopting fourier transform; calculating a fractal dimenstion of each sub-window containing the transverse basic cycle period or the longitudinal basic cycle period in the original image according to a traversing method, wherein the fractal dimenstion of each sub-window is calculated on the basis of a corresponding one-dimensional time sequence formed by transversely or longitudinally accumulating image pixel gray values; and finally, selecting two fractal dimenstion extreme valuesof reflecting transverse detail information and two fractal dimenstion extreme values of reflecting longitudinal detail information as detail features used for representing the fabric texture. Every two of the four extreme value fractal features have obvious complementarity, and a feature vector formed from the four extreme value fractal features can realize rapid, overall and deep representationon fabric texture details.