Martin Vander Weyer (The Spectator, England) hauls out unstylish old clothes:

I have been involved, secretively, in a significant challenge of my own: to lose a stone and a half in 12 weeks. After a succession of big lunches on the slopes in March, my annual skiing party decided collectively that we had run to flab, and one friend came up with a scheme to raise money for the British Ski Club for the Disabled by each achieving specified weight-loss targets. Remarkably, we all did it, and our heaviest contestant, a very big boy indeed, shed an awesome 36lbs on a regime of brown rice, oily fish and industrial muesli. The boring thing about dieting is talking about it — hence the secretiveness — but the pleasing thing is that it makes available eras of wardrobe that you never thought you would visit again. I’m already back in my 1987 cream linen suit, and if I keep going I can see some wicked batik shirts and flared trousers at the end of the rail.

My advice: Forget the bell bottoms. Your old clothes fit the old you. Get new clothes for the new you.

Ladies: Do not haul out the dress you wore to the prom--or, God forbid, your wedding dress! Men: Do not try to dye your hair the raven black you were in college. Or wear those old wide ties. Or those old, super-narrow ties.

Edited: bhw

Article Author: Miriam

Miriam is a recovering librarian and sometime writer who wrote a book about African American aviators and astronauts cleverly entitled, "Distinguished African American Aviators and Astronauts." She's kind of stuck back in the twentieth century.

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