Talking Points

A. Read the extract, and answer the questions which follow

Like all other fashion editors in the land, I get enough hate mail and takings-to-task at parties to be in no doubt that, as a nation our attitudes to clothes are particularly and often violently screwed up

Confused, uncomfortable, or ambivalent might be kinder words for it, but whatever the trouble, the expression of it always comes out in a boiling stream of anger. Why do fashion editors only use young, slim models? Why do we show expensive designer clothes? How can we print frivolous articles on fashion when children are starving in Ethiopia?

It is useless to argue that the British fashion industry is the fourth largest in the country and deserves coverage and support on the grounds of the employment it generates. Fashion is a moral mine­field spiked with all kinds of nameless dangers, temptations and vic­es. The dread seduction of clothes touches terrible British sensitive­ness to do with class, snobbery, puritanism, parsimony, sex and Right and Wrong.

(Sarah Mower, The Guardian)

What do you learn from this piece about:

1. British attitudes to clothes?

2. The British fashion industry?

B. Discuss in groups:

What kind of clothes do you prefer to wear?

Are you influenced by the social occasion?

What is your image?

Are you happy with the image you think you project?

How different is the real you from the image?

Job Application

You are Lesley Smith, aged 17, and you are thinking of applying to university. You have seen the following advertisement in The Post newspaper.