Well, didn't I tell you about Mexx?

WHAT did I tell you about Mexx way back on December 6? I said the store was doomed. Only a matter of time before it would fold.

Every time I passed the Dutch-owned clothing retailer, on a prime Princes Street site formerly the iconic C&A's, it was virtually empty. A ghostly 10,000 square feet where the staff could be picked out in splendid isolation

Doomsday has duly arrived. Already, like me, you're contemplating the fate of a building the city can't afford to have lying in dereliction, it's so much before the public eye, with locals and visitors alike.

Can anybody afford to pay the rent? A City Hall source tells me it could well become another shop flogging tat, "authentic" Scottish tat at that, to tourists taken in by rampant lions and Saltire flags, see-you-Jimmy bunnets, cheapo kilts and taped bagpipes spewing on to the street. Only in Edinburgh.

Fashion boobs
While we're chuntering about apparel – colleagues have adopted me as the resident Holyrood fashionista – I'm told it's well known in the garment trade that Edinburgh women are overly coy about stripping down to their bikinis. In this weather, would you?

C'mon girls, don't be shy. A survey is telling us it's down to a lack of confidence in their bodies. Sixty per cent of women quizzed this side of the Border confessed that "breast confidence" issues affect their choice of clothes. Lop-sided bosoms seemingly are the big problem.

Chest a minute, though. Increasingly Edinburgh guys, when they "dress up" to go out on the town in any old T-shirt and dowdy jeans, seem unaware they've developed noticeable manboobs. Six pints of lager and a packet of crisps later and they've lost all inhibition when, really, they should be wearing a bra.

So ladies, forget the breast asymmetry. Six pints could restore your confidence. See you in your itsy-bitsies at Gullane and Silverknowes this Sunday.

Afterwords . .
. . . uttered by the ailing Paul Newman: "I can't work any more. You start to lose your memory, to lose your confidence, to lose your invention. I think that's a pretty closed book for me." Yep, a sair fecht, Paul. You don't need to tell me.