“His jumper looked like it was made of rats.” “His belt buckle had eyes on it.” “What's with the chenille?” Women use a host of fashion criticisms to assess men, but don't for a second think we really care. Usually when a woman criticises a man's clothes it's not your propensity for shopping at the sale rack of Sue Ryder that she has a problem with, she is simply saying: “I don't like you very much.”

When I met Harry he was wearing royal-blue tracksuit bottoms, a purple Hawaiian shirt and a filthy baseball cap. For most of our three-year relationship I looked like I was dating a man on day release from a young offender institution. It never bothered me, right up until it all went wrong. Then, suddenly, I had a lot to say about his taste in everything. I began to criticise his dirty shoes, the movies he liked, the width of his fingers. My frustration at Harry's lack of a job came out as: “What? Did you steal Nick Nolte's hair to make those pants?” It wasn't fair, I'm not proud of it and the crazy behaviour dragged on for months before I plucked up the courage to say: “This isn't working out.”

The relationship counsellor Funke Baffour explains: “When you love somebody you focus on their good qualities. Under stress you become more fault-finding. I've met many couples where one partner suddenly becomes hypercritical. The nitpicker often thinks their partner has changed, but it's usually them that has encountered difficulty or is going through a period of low self-esteem.

“To fix it, look at what larger issues are causing you to be intolerant and are they things that you can change together. If so, work on them and the nitpicking will stop.”

Verdict Tracksuits are not a deal-breaker. A scabbard is.

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