One reason that I could contemplate getting a tattoo

Carrie looked great, but I’d never wear a rented dress

NEWLYWED Carrie Johnson is reported to have tied the knot wearing a rented dress, as well as planning to hire her outfits for this week’s G7 summit. An identical outfit to the one she wore for her wedding is now starring on the home-page of MyWardrobe HQ – one of the most successful fashion rental sites. I wonder if there’s a premium on a dress that was worn by the Prime Minister’s wife?

Last week, a £1 billion bid was made by Etsy for Depop, a clothing site where people sell their old stuff, or indeed anything they can get their hands on, with prices starting at a couple of quid.

Wow, second-hand clothes have come a long way from a rummage through a trestle table at the church jumble sale.

I write as someone who was dressed almost entirely in secondhand clothes until I reached my 30s. I had one smart suit for work and a peach- coloured corduroy jacket I bought in a Kenzo sale, but other than that almost all my clothes were found in Portobello Market and Flip in Covent Garden that sold old American baseball jackets and plaid shirts.

We called it second-hand then – not pre-loved, pre-owned, vintage or recycled. I had a fabulous collection of 1950s cocktail dresses, nipped-in-waist tailored jackets, silk tea dresses and a couple of old fur coats.

How I loved to hunt through the colourful rails of charity shops and antique markets. And it was all so cheap. It never occurred to me or my friends who kitted themselves out the same way that we were doing anything to save the planet.

Fashion sustainability was not even an embryonic idea. But now, call it what you will, wearing other people’s clothes is the trend in clothing retail and is being marketed with a massive dose of environmental health mission statement.

This sounds terrific so I wonder why I’m not doing it. Maybe it’s an age thing.

The majority of Depop customers haven’t yet reached their mid- 20s. They have the time and inclination to spend hours on their phone, perfecti ng i mages of t hemselves for their threads.

For some of us, though, renting outfits for special occasions still feels strange – as if turning up in costume rather than our own clothes. I prefer the idea that my party dresses have a history of good times we have spent together.

Last week’s long-awaited arrival of sunshine encouraged me to dig out some bags of summer clothes. Confronted by piles of cotton T- shirts that have seen better days, I had a twinge of nostalgia for the time when I would have just chucked them into a bin bag without qualm or guilt about contributing to landfill.

Then I considered selling them online – too much of a faff. So I’ll be dropping off a few bits and pieces as usual at my local charity shops, which must surely be suffering with the popularity of these new resale sites.

And the rest are back in my wardrobe, where they’ll sit until winter and then get packed up again. They may be old and worn, but they’re my old and worn and I kind of like keeping them around. as he’s also one of life’s leading smoking evangelists, that he’s even less likely to return to Britain from his Normandy home ( possibly stuffed with those pieces we can no longer get hold of), now that Oxfordshire Council is joining others in attempting to ban smoking from outdoors.