A combination of weeding the allotment and using the mouse extensively in preparing something for submission left my right hand in agony. (The stinging nettles encountered in weeding didn't help.) So I have avoided anything that would further stress the wrist: tv replaced computer.  I loathe Friends and have seen every episode of X Files at least twice, so this leaves property shows, clothes and cooking. 

I don't have any great interest in fashion. I've never bought a copy of Vogue. I want to wear something that is comfortable, makes me look good and is appropriate for the occasion. Haute Couture is like visiting a foreign country - fascinating and alien. But I like watching people that do something well and are passionate about it.

Project Runway has become a favorite.

Project Runway is a combination of a talent show, like The X Factor, and a reality tv show, like Big Brother. There's the usual format: 12 or 13 contestants are selected who wish to make it big in the Fashion World. Each show involves a challenge, which results in a winner and an eliminated contestant. The challenges are fun to watch - create a garment from materials found in a supermarket; make a costume for one of the female stars of the World Wrestling Federation, make a dress for a high school Senior Prom. The final three contestants put together a collection to show at Fashion Week in New York.

It's different than the usual reality contest: first, there's no cannon fodder, no incompetent set up for the cuts and jibes of the judges. The judges criticize and eliminate but never mock.  Tim Gunn, a designer himself, acts as mentor to the contestents. He is knowledgeable, clever and incredibly nice. He's the perfect middle aged uncle.

All of the contestants are winners. Even if they're the first person eliminated, the show increases their opportunities in the fashion world. There are, with the different challenges, rewards from the challenge itself. For example, the contestants were taken to a warehouse full of Levi denim products and were told to use the jeans, jackets and skirts to produce a new look for Levi. The winner had his design included in a limited edition manufactured by Levi.

I watched a few episodes of another show about fashion - something about a woman called Zoe who lives in Los Angeles, has the perfect house, husband, marriage and taste. She also has two assistants who are not perfect. She  dresses women for important occasions, like the Oscars. She borrows designer dresses and all the accessories, including jewelry, and gives the client the perfect look. She wants to avoid having her client appear in anything the tabloids can disparage. She also wants her client to dominate the red carpet and appear as the defining photo or television shot of the guests appearing at the function.

Zoe is aspirational tv. There's nothing about how the job of dressing the stars actually works. We see a lifestyle and it's not a lifestyle I want. It would be fun to be rich, probably, but that is the main thing I learn from the show.

That's not really what I'm interested in.  All these dresses are borrowed. Do designers make a range of sizes and send the right size?  How do you let out the dresses or take them in when they're FedExed back to the designer the day after the show? Then there are all those borrowed diamonds. Does Zoe go along to the jewelers with a couple of armed body guards? And the shoes. I'd never wear new shoes to an event where I had to stand; but Zoe's clients probably have very tough feet. The shoes, apparently, are not borrowed--the show doesn't say, but I don't see how you can lend shoes and still resell them. Does Zoe replace her shoe stock in sizes 4 through 10 every season? Or have samples and buy the actual shoe for the occasion and leave it with the client?

On Project Runway, the viewer becomes very aware of just how much hard graft goes into being a fashion designer. You start with a pretty picture on a page but then comes the fabric and color choices, cutting the pattern, sewing the seams...  One of the judges commented that a particular dress would have worked if the contestant had chosen a different fabric. The show emphasizes skills that have to be learned. Tim Gunn's signature quote: "Make it work."

Both shows have a theme, sometimes explicit: clothing is transformative. Think about uniforms. The clothes may not maketh the man or woman, but it's considerably easier to see yourself in a particular role if you're dressed for the part.

Years ago, I was working in Oldham, in the Northwest of England, doing fieldwork among immigrants of South Asian descent. I lived in a working class neighborhood and most of my neighbors were Muslim originally from Azad Kashmir who had come to work in England's textile mills.

One day, I saw two police officers in uniform walking the street - one male, one female. Two women in burkas with two children, about four or five, approached. The children ran away from their mothers and up to the police officers, very excited - they saw police, just like on CBEEBIES. The children chattered away and the woman police officer squatted down to child eye level, nodding and smiling. The male bent over, listening to the children. The women came up, nodded, spoke a few moments and then the two groups separated and went in opposite directions.

They knew enough about each other to interact intelligently because of the uniforms they wore.

Clothing, as a subject, is a serious matter.

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