Dressing down

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the continental midday sun. But at least the mad dogs don’t dress in vests, belly-hugging T-shirts or those cut-off trousers that make short men shorter and fat men fatter.

Why do they do it? How has it happened that you can spot Holidaymakerus britannicus in an instant, from the other side of the piazza — from the far end of the tapas bar? The romantic legend that the British provide a model of good dress still lingers on. The British invented the modern suit, so the myth goes, Savile Row stands for the best tailoring in the world, so those sartorial standards must be written into our dressing DNA.

Well, it just goes to show how difficult it is to dislodge a national stereotype. Frenchmen don’t wear Breton shirts any more, Greeks don’t wear skirts and tasselled hats — and the British are no longer able to dress appropriately, attractively or comfortably in the heat.