UK has more on its mind than fashion

Brexit nervousness has been blamed for many things recently, and that includes dowdy dressers. The chief executive of Hennes & Mauritz said yesterday that cautious British shoppers had suddenly stopped buying its clothes.

The Swedish group behind the high street brand H&M said that profits in the second quarter were down by 17 per cent. That was partly because cold weather had hit sales and a strong dollar had hit costs, but British torpor was also a problem. “The clothing market in the UK has been poor during the first half-year in general,” Karl-Johan Persson said, in part the result…