While she is always frumpily and inappropriately dressed herself, for instance, she seems to be able to identify all items of designer clothing from 100 yards off.

SHE is also, of course, a he, and away from the spotlight, Platinette reverts to Mauro Coruzzi, 47, a self-deprecating, nearly bald, often unshaven, frumpily dressed homebody.

Once, at a dinner in Oxford, I caught Berlin's eye after Iris Murdoch, frumpily attired as though in a Sketchley's plastic bag, announced that in the next life she would like to be reincarnated as a dress designer.

Beverly Blossom, 73, an alumna of the Alwin Nikolais company, presented "Sorry, Miss," a bittersweet solo in which she portrayed a downcast-looking, frumpily dressed woman who swayed sadly to a recording of Sibelius's "Valse Triste."