Some people are affected by “fancy” clothes — the moment they don a hat they become self conscious and tilt their heads in unnatural ways. Put this type of person’s feet into expensive shoes and he or she begins to mince about, or trip over their own feet. Dress such a man or woman in a sleek new suit or dress and you may create a person who exaggerates every glance, augments all movements or ‘gilds’ each gesture.

During my childhood, if my grandmother caught me prancing grandly about in a brand new outfit, she would shout: “Aren’t you high and mighty? Doing the cakewalk!” When my grandmother’s elderly sisters and their daughters would visit us on Sundays or holidays, they would often dress up; they would emerge from their cars with scarves wrapped about their shoulders or around their throats, shaking out their long skirts and patting their hair. As the women walked across the lawn to our door, their high heels sank into the ground, and the ladies crouched down, swayed, and held on to each other or stretched out their arms to balance themselves. My grandmother, her face expressionless, her arms akimbo, would look at this ‘parade’ from the kitchen window and quietly say: “They’re doing the cakewalk“…

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