Economy making us slimmer

The people who sent this pic swear it's a lawyer
rather than a model, and who are we to judge?

A travelling tailor in the City has noticed that suit waistlines are getting slimmer - which means two things. First the economy might be disastrous but it's doing our health no harm at all. Second, I am way out of step - but that's not important.

Tailors Norton and Townsend say the average waist size has shrunk from 36 to 34.5in, and chest measurements have gone from 44 to 42.


"The majority of our clients are at executive level who would have seen a business lunch almost as part of their daily working life," said boss Austen Pickles. "But that is no longer the case with expense accounts and lazy lunches out of keeping with the downturn in the economic climate.

"With the emergence of so many different online networking platforms, businesses can often do without the business lunch with its demands on time and finances. It is most noticeable as average sizes drop."

The other thing that's happening is that people are going for lighter-weight fabrics. Pickles believes this is because they want to move about more easily and quickly than they did before.

To be fair this is nothing new. I had my first tailored suit made in the early 1990s and even then the tailor told me that although the classic suit hadn't changed much since the 1970s he'd typically be using lighter fabrics than he used to; that this trend has continued is no surprise.

So is everybody losing weight except me? And have you noticed either tailored or off-the-peg suits coming in lighter-weight cloth?