Mad Tea Party

High street retailer Debenhams said a rebellion against the rigid dinner party etiquette of the last century was well under way in British households as the order of the Victorian tea set is swapped for a colourful array of plates and cups in various shapes, sizes and styles.

"It's the dining equivalent of creating a painting from scratch rather than painting by numbers. Young people want to eat meals where imagination hasn't been confined to the food."

The mismatched crockery fad started in fashionable tea houses last year but sales have rocketed in the wake of the 2010 box office hit "Alice in Wonderland," in which Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter's characters are seen using an unconventional tea set.  The spokesbod guffed on:

"It's a Mad Hatter's approach to formal dining, but mixing and matching crockery was not easy.  Choosing crockery with the same pattern imposes its own natural order. However deliberately mis-matching each piece requires much more thought, colour co-ordination and artistic flair."

What a crock.  Most people drink tea out of a mug and hardly anyone sits down to tea any more.  Just cobblers marketing.