My rules for charity shops, refined over an embarrassing number of…

My rules for charity shops, refined over an embarrassing number of Saturdays:

• Check the seams before the label. A good label on a badly finished garment is somebody else already disappointed.

• Natural fibres mend, synthetics mostly do not. This is the whole rule really.

• If it needs more than two repairs you are not buying a garment, you are buying a project, and be honest about which one you are in the mood for.

• Buy the thing that fits over the thing that is beautiful. Every time. I have never once been wrong about this and I still get it wrong.