A reader asks ...

"Do you think I'd look good in these? I'd obviously wear them with shoes."



Dear N, you are joking, aren't you. It wouldn't matter what you wore them with, they are irredeemably hideous.
The Oxford bags portrayed in a recent post were of soft, quality fabric, hence Ms H's comment that they "they drape a little, they flow a little" when men are dancing. Denim does neither of these - it's stiff and ungainly, designed to be a hard-working fabric. It never adapts gracefully to excess yardage.
Does that answer your question?

The divine dress code

The sight of this dress over at The Fashion Police http://www.thefashionpolice.net/2010/07/wear-or-die-denim-dress-edition.html prompted a spontaneous eukhh from this part of the world.

Not so far from me lives a small community of Brethren, and you see the women shopping in the nearby supermarket. They really go for denim, the younger ones, anyway (their elders favour navy polyester; the men, of course, look like ordinary men, the Lord apparently making no sartorial demands on them). Since they’re not allowed to wear trousers or short skirts, they opt for several metres of top-stitched denim in the vague shape of a skirt, and flap along like ships under sail.

The Denim Skirt is accessorised with a headscarf (female heads must be covered), clumpy shoes (stylish ones presumably being the work of the devil) and several small children, the little girls with their heads already covered.

And of course it's entirely their business. So why - given the tolerant attitude I recently expressed towards the wearing of the burqa and veil - do I always feel I want to seize these women and shake them til their teeth rattle in an effort to wake them up?

By which I mean, I know why I do, but I wish I didn't.