Once it is winter I seem to wear black trousers most of the time, so I was delighted at a gathering of achieving women at the Women’s Library, housed at the London School of Economics, to see that half of them were also wearing black trousers. And then the next day there was even Angela Merkel in black trousers on television, with David Cameron.
The interview with them was followed by a shot of the House of Commons, in which, as always, most of the men seemed to be dressed in apparently identical dark blue suits. Odd, really: most of us would think we dress just to please ourselves or to impress others, or occasionally for a practical reason, like keeping out rain or staying cool. We think we only wear uniforms when they are forced upon us, and that the only purpose of school uniforms – hardly even meant to be attractive – is to prevent the girls from being distracted by trying to impress boys, or each other.
Yet I’m more and more coming to the conclusion that – though no one could say it of Merkel – most of us are like the woman in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, who said: “My aim in dressing, then as now, was not to appear remarkable.”
Luckily we’ve abandoned “a girl is always safe in blue” – but perhaps we should be careful that we don’t make black compulsory, like hapless men in evening dress.
What do you think? Have your say below
