But Alexa hasn’t finished yet. ‘Have you any idea how trivial you sound?’

David’s phone pings. He looks up at me in despair. ‘Fern, can you take over the shop for me?’

‘Sure.’

‘Why, what’s happening?’ Alexa asks in alarm, getting to her feet.

David rakes his fingers through his hair. ‘Gigi’s moving out. Come on, Duncan. We’re going home.’

The dog comes out from under the chair and follows him placidly through the market.

Alexa hands the cup to me and hurries after him.

Moss looks at me over his glasses with his bushy eyebrows raised and calmly goes back to unpicking the seams of the gold blouse.

Dinah puts her hand on my shoulder. She’s looking at me strangely, as if she pities me. ‘What you said to Alexa, about reinventing yourself. This is something you like to do, isn’t it?’

‘Of course. That’s the whole point of fashion, isn’t it? You choose a different look depending on who you want to be. Take Wallis Simpson, for instance. She cultivated her sense of style deliberately because her clothes made her look beautiful.’

‘It’s true, she gave the impression of being beautiful without having the face for it.’

‘Exactly!’ I say happily, feeling that I’ve made my point. But the truth is, I can’t stop thinking about Alexa’s scorn when she said I was trivial.

Nor David’s expression when she said it.

LOT 18

Full-length, psychedelic-print, hippy-style silk jersey dress, late Sixties, blue/purple colour tones, Pucci, size 38/10.

This evening, as I’m slobbing around in my tracksuit bottoms and an oversized sweater, Lucy comes down full of excitement to see if I’ve seen the coverage of the film premiere on the local news, because if not, she’s taped it, and as I haven’t, we go up to hers to watch it over a bottle of wine.

She points the remote and cunningly, against the backdrop of the crowds gathered at the base of the IMAX, there’s Lucy, actually on the red carpet wearing – ta-da! – a Fern Banks Vintage piece. The teal really shines out in the spotlights. She’s posing with her hand on her hip, just behind the actress Keira Knightley.

‘You look amazing, Lucy. Star quality! You look as good as she does. Pity she had to go and stand practically right in front of you.’

‘Yes, but watch – watch – see? Did you see that? When she turns you can see my whole head, and a sleeve. That’s at least five seconds of my fifteen minutes of fame, don’t you think?’

‘At least that.’

‘It was such fun! Except my date from Universal is never taking me anywhere with him again because when I talked to Holly Willoughby, you know, the presenter? I spilled my drink on her shoe.’

‘Lucy! Was she angry?’