I shook my head, quickly glanced around and said “They’re all girl’s clothes.”

“They’re all dresses.” Mum retorted as if correcting me. She reminded me of the boy’s dresses in the exhibition last month. “Do you think those boys thought they were wearing girl’s clothes or just dresses?” she asked.

I pondered for a few seconds. “Erm… just dresses I guess.”

“It’s just a matter of perception really.”

“Yeah… like when girls dress like this…” I looked down at my jumper, jeans and trainers. “…they’re not wearing boy’s clothes, they’re just wearing clothes.”

“Exactly.” Mum said. She cast her eyes around the stall again and said, “Imagine a world in which both boys and girls can wear dresses.” she paused and I pulled my perplexed expression. “Now have a look around to see if there’s anything you like.”

“But…” I grimaced. “…they’re all dresses.”

“I know.” Mum chuckled. “We’re pretending that that doesn’t matter.”

“You’re not going to buy me it are you?” I gulped.

“Have you found something already?” my mother knowingly asked. I pointed out a dress, made it clear that I didn’t ‘like’ it, but it did make me smile when I noticed it. Mum lifted the dress from the rail. “Skulls? Typical.” she grinned. “It’s horrible.”

“It’s cool.”

“I was thinking you might have seen something on that rail.” Mum said as she put the dress back.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you were looking at them when I was looking at the petticoats.” she informed me. “They are quite similar to the dresses boys used to wear.”

“So?” I muttered as I cast my eyes across the resplendant pastel spectrum arranged in yellows, pinks, purples, greens and blues.

“Well… this is the sort of dress girls wear these days.” she said, referring to the skull dress. “…some girls anyway… and girls a bit older than you.”