I'm sure someone will now steal this idea, but a while ago, (pre 9/11, I might add), I came up with the idea of an outfit that you could wear to go shopping that would make it much easier to change clothes. This garment, which I dubbed the "shopping caftan" would allow women (and a few adventurous men) to simply slip the caftan off and on (either over the head or with a long zipper), thereby making it much easier to try on clothes. I mean, how many times have you wanted to buy something, but just lacked the energy to take off all your clothes and then put them back on again? The shopping caftan would solve all your problems, and for special occasions, you could leave the house in whatever "special occasion" undergarments you needed to wear, and shopping would be that much easier.

I called my shopping caftan the "Dubai," after the seventh United Arab Emirate, with a play on the phrase "do buy." See how clever I am? After all, according to the Dubai Tourism Center: "Dubai is the City built for Tourism all around the year with excellent Hotels, Resorts, Shopping and Sports facilities available throughout the year!" In fact, Dubai seems to be fiercely commercial: Dubai Lonely Planet tells us that Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) is held from mid-January to mid-February. Surely an outfit named after a country with a month-long shopping event can't be bad!

I was head over heels in love with the Dubai. I fantasized about design, dimensions, and luxurious fabrics. I even sold my family on the Dubai, and was all set to find a seamstress and go into production when 9/11 happened, curtailing my plans to bring Middle Eastern fashion to America.

But now and again, especially when I'm feeling a little bloated, I think that the shopping caftan is still a good idea. I just need a new name.