Fashions in clothes are an important part of what defines each era. The 1970s, for example, will forever endure the ignominy of being remembered as the “flares decade”. The contours of cool in clothing are forever changing, as they clothing manufacturers know to their cost, as they struggle to keep up with the evolutions of fashion. It’s not clear what clothing defines our era. Usually, it only becomes obvious in retrospect. So we’ll just have to read about it in twenty years to realise what we are like now.

In recent years, as obesity problems begin to beset the Western world, many manufacturers have been forced to introduce larger clothing sizes, and specialist retailers, catering to the “big boy” and “big girl” market, have also emerged.

Women traditionally have been far more intensely concerned about the clothes they wear than men, who often allow the women in their lives to buy their clothing for them. Some believe the availability of male lifestyle magazines has changed this, however, and that men are beginning to take a greater interest in all aspects of how they look, including, of course, what they wear.

The internet has probably has less of a dramatic effect on clothes shops than almost any other retail segment. However fast your broadband connection is, it’s hard to beat the experience of being able to try clothes on in a shop and being able to feel the actual texture of the fabric.