It always feels a bit odd to be an American overseas as July 4 nears; strange jingoistic impulses rear their heads and sudden desires to fry chicken and eat corn on the cob seem overwhelming. It’s one of those hokey US holidays that non-natives often find difficult to understand and easy to dismiss: all that flag waving and self-celebration, at a time when the country is fast skiddo-ing down a slippery slope to non-global domination; how deluded are you?

This is typically when I decide I really, really do need that red-white-and-blue Chanel shorts suit and cardi after all, or the white silk star-spangled YSL dress, or at least the Topshop “homage” versions of the same. Forget flying the colours: I want to wear them. In your face, buddy!