'The bride wore tweed'

Poor Camilla Parker Bowles. It's bad enough to have to follow in the footsteps of the "people's princess," though Diana seemed to be rather a dimwit to me, albeit a photogenic one, now she has to endure sniping about her sense of style--or lack thereof.

Mrs. Parker Bowles still makes fashion missteps, though. Just last weekend she created a mini-maelstrom by appearing in public while on vacation in the Scottish Highlands in - gasp - a pair of blue jeans.

True, they were a not very flattering boot cut, which managed somehow to look both short in the crotch and puffy in the hips at the same time. But the debate loudly conducted in the press wasn't about straight leg versus easy fit. Instead, Mrs. Parker Bowles' choice in trousers inspired conniptions over what may strike most Americans as a very antiquated question: Should women her age be wearing jeans?

Definite answers came fast. "I THINK NOT, MA'AM" screamed the headline over a two-page spread on the subject in The Daily Mail on March 29. At 57, the paper snorted, Mrs. Parker Bowles should keep in mind that "jeans are a young person's garment."

Even in her comfort zone, sometimes Mrs. Parker Bowles can't win. Among upper-class women, Ms. Andrews sniffed, "Wearing jeans past a certain age just isn't done."