But in regards to the former, everyone knows that the only costume you should wear is one that makes you look good (”Tonight I’m dressed as me. In a really hot dress. Nice penguin outfit, pal,”) and, in regards to the latter, I really don’t see why you need to make an excuse for owning 20 dresses. Earn your money honestly, spend it how you like; that’s the motto round here.

The real problem with the idea of dressing for the occasion is that it invariably slips into embarrassing - if not actually offensive - fancy dress.

Remember those annoying thirtysomething couples you met while backpacking in India in your gap year? The ones who would wear trouser suits made out of hemp, and mini bells, which coordinated perfectly with their insufferably smug smiles, only to prompt the bemusement of the locals who wondered why these crazy westerners were dressed like members of a 19th-century carnival act? Exactly.

Kelly Osbourne recently revealed that when she is going out for a Chinese meal she likes to don a “Chinese-style” dress because “it’s more fun”. Not half as fun as it is for the waiters to be confronted with a national stereotype almost as insufferable as Mickey Rooney’s attempts to tap into his Japanese side in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I’d wager. And, while it doesn’t involve dressing, here is an instructive fact.