Wedding dress blues

I pass a glitteringly expensive wedding dress shop almost every day on my way to work, idly noting the frothy confections in the window and wondering who, exactly, spends £5000 on a wedding dress. But the other day this window display actually made me laugh with - what? Anger? Frustration? Disbelief?

The simple image of a perfect, white wedding dress with a huge great clock right next to it is depressing enough for the average woman, no matter what their marital status. If you're married already, it reminds you that time has passed and you'll no longer fit into that 'perfect' dress. It's a recipe for hyperventilation for the nervous bride-to-be. But special pity, as always, will be reserved for the single woman, especially if she's in her thirties - or heaven forbid! - forties. The clock is ticking on her 'dream wedding' - leave it much longer and the white dress will be a sad pastiche.

Of course it's not the 1950's - no one need fear that they have been left 'on the shelf', in fact no one need marry at all. However, it's less the societal pressure to ensure that single women are safely contained that galls these days. It's more the consumerist impulse nudging us on - don't miss out on this one, unique opportunity to blow more cash on a dress than you've ever done before, or ever will again! Only a fool, or worse, a bad shopper, would let this baby slip through her fingers...