We all have the experience of meeting a fellow cyclist in a non-cycling environment and failing to recognise them. Yet they instantly register when you see them in their cycling gear.

My wife is always critical of my dress sense. This is because women have been brought up to think of dress as the way to show off themselves .Marketeers invented fashion and women fell for the trick. But when Eve grabbed the fig leaf (it was before marketeers were born), it was not a fashion statement – rather it was a cover up.

Clothes are meant to hide things – way before they became fashion.

In fact, life is about the hidden things – and the real fun is in uncovering them. That is why strip shows have such a large following. Why does hide and seek a captivating game for us since we started as babies? The hiding and finding is why.

Even the day starts in darkness. Then the sunlight pops out to reveal the new day. We spend a life time learning things and that is not because the things that we learn are new things. We just uncover things that are hidden from our consciousness. It is hide then find.

When Oprah walked into that handbag shop in Zurich, she was hiding something. She was either using her special clothes or her complexion – but it apparently got the sales girl confused. She would not have been a good salesperson because good salesmen are taught to uncover the customer’s position first before they sell them something. Ordinary sales people struggle for a sale because they judge a customer before they get to know them. The stories of women walking into a car yard and being ignored by the car sales man are true.

Normally, I wear what I like and say what I like – because it allows me to hide what I want to hide. I see everyone else in the same light. We all have something to hide. The fun is in knowing that everyone has something to hide and the aim in life is in uncovering them.