A man and his jeans

Harry's post below reminds me of a dear friend who went out to buy a pair of jeans, his old ones having suffered that perennial problem, wardrobe shrinkage, and returned home empty handed. He had tried on his usual jeans in his usual size, 34 waist, but found they were too small. Why didn't you get the next size up, I asked him?

Because they're 36 and I'm 34, he said.

Well, I pointed out, obviously if the 34 are too small, you're 36.

No, he said. I'm 34.

As if it was his date of birth or star sign, or the colour of his eyes, something fixed and static in the universe.

He hired a personal trainer.

About a dress

Regular readers will know my wearying search for new dresses. I had a crushing disappointment yesterday, with a dress I had first seen back in February, and which I believed, on the basis of the press sample I had been shown, to be empire line. It turned out to be a smock.

However, just before I went to Toronto I found in H. Nicks, a very good collection of summer dresses by Nicole Farhi and bought one of them, the downside being that it's linen, and all that that entails. But they must be on sale now.

Above is a shot from the SS08 catwalk show which will give an idea. The one I bought is the shape illustrated above, but actually, a nicer fabric. Quite low cut but a top underneath fixes that.