customers is to do our best to come up with the designs that will charm, not harm, our ladies. We are not making size "0", as we believe in keeping it REAL.

Wearing black is an obsession, a female addiction. As hard to kick, it seems, as nicotine. In despair, Barbara Hulanicki, founder of 1960s shopping legend Biba and now running her own store, Fitz & Fitz, in Manhattan, has even created a 12-step guide to giving up black. Take it slowly, she urges. You must want to stop, and not believe it's hopeless. Like cigarettes, giving up black can be greatly assisted with the use of patches. Hulanicki says: "Introduce little spots of colour in your black, in shores or accessores first." After a few months you will be able to wear predominantly colours. For it is a big shock to wear brash shades after years of dressing for the nunnery and you are likely to suffer withdrawal symptoms and relapse. Despite her international efforts, it is always the black which sells out first in Hulanicki's shop, closely followed by a subdued shade of dull cigar. She blames the fashion world as well as consumer demand. "Designers put so much black into their collections, it's too easy to wear black. People come into my shop and say they can't be bothered to wear colour."