On Fashion

 I am in London for a few more days and London Fashion Week has just ended here, which explains why there are so many bizarrely-dressed people on the Tube.  Or perhaps these are just the Londoners I used to take as perfectly normal.  One thing though, if I see another young girl stumbling along in scuffed ballet shoes, I shall scream. Especially when paired with bulging leggings and a short, flouncy skirt. Ballet shoes are totally unsuitable for city streets and always look as if they're about to fall off. Their wearers like to stand, posing, feet slightly turned out, gabbling or texting on their mobile phones. But I expect this fashion craze will fade as autumn approaches.
 Western New York fashion, on the other hand, is simpler to understand. To be hip is to have a new pair of trainers, or sneakers, as they call them.  And for middle-aged ladies, those baggy three-quarter-trousers that make everyone look barrel-shaped, especially when sporting a crew cut, as is the norm for the over-sixties. For the men, a baseball cap, never to be taken off, even in a restaurant.   Skirts or dresses on women are virtually unheard-of, unless they're members of a religious sect. It's a good thing people in WNY aren't too desperate to get with the latest thing, as I don't know where they'd buy it. I never thought I'd be so homesick for Marks and Spencers. (Wal-mart is good for cheap shorts and t-shirts, though, especially for wearing in London, where no one knows where they've come from. For the same reason, I wear things from M and S in America and pretend they're haute couture.)