Today is the day to start a controlled forest fire.

Dear Mrs. Zulkey.com on "Fashion"

Dear Mrs. Zulkey.com,

This is a matter we’ve been struggling with for over a year now, and we think that your no-nonsense advice paired with your impeccable fashion sense may be the answer to our sartorial prayers. We have a friend who is unaware that she is repeatedly committing a fashion mistake. Specifically, she insists on wearing (with some regularity) all-denim outfits. Jeans, jean jacket, jean shirt, you get the idea. The denims are very rarely the same wash. Also, sometimes the jeans are tapered.

We’re aware that sending this email may make us seem extremely catty and judgmental. It’s a risk we’re simply willing to take. We love our friend, and we really have her best interests at heart. We just want to help her to realize that neither of these looks (all-denim or tapered) is a winner. Is there any way to address this with tact? Or have we let this go on too long? Are we just wrong to try to impose our fashion preferences upon others? Is there room in the fashion world for the all-denim outfit?

Thanks for your help,

Friends who have grown weary of the Canadian tuxedo

Dear Fashionista,

Have you considered that your friend may be making some sort of statement with her insistently consistent ensemble? You've heard of wearable art. This may be a wearable socio-political cultural commentary on American hegemony, a wardrobe satire on our love affair with denim and its resultant influence on the fashion appetites of the rest of the world. Her outfit may just be a super-sophisticated oeuvre-in-fabric you're simplistically misinterpreting as jeans run amok.

No?

Okay, then. I'm not so sure you'd like to open up the Pandora's box of critiquing a friend's wardrobe choices. Unless you're totally confident that you've never made a fashion faux pas you risk backlash. Maybe your gaucho pants weren't such a good idea. Perhaps you bought into that rage for chartreuse a couple of summers ago. And what about that smiley face tattoo? Did she say anything to you? Friends are friends because they don't remark on one's taste missteps. I, for one, am eternally grateful to my friends who silently tolerated that perm I thought was such a hip departure from the usual me back in the Eighties.

Fashion criticism is best left to veteran fault-finders, and by that I mean one's Mom, siblings and children.

Mrs. Zulkey

Have a question for Dear Mrs. Zulkey.com? She's my real live mom. She'll answer just about anything: send in your question here.