Stripes, stripes and yet more stripes, in navy and white with accents of red and a sprinkling of gold buttons, hang from numerous rails to outfit enough sailors to fill every sailboat from here to the other side of the Atlantic. There is every variation of the Breton top, jaunty navy and cream striped cropped cardigans with little gilt buttons and chains, stripes with polka dots, stripes with pearls, thin stripes and wide stripes in white, blue and red, navy and ecru and crisp whites and navy.

Topshop have one of the cutest navy and cream striped cotton boleros featuring cream epaulette detailing and gold buttons, as well as a more structured red and cream summer tweedy cropped jacket, also with gold buttons, and a smart navy cardigan with little gold chains on the pockets and very shiny yellowy gold buttons. They also have a navy and cream loose sleeveless cotton sailor top and Chanel inspired little quilted handbags with chain shoulder straps in navy and white polka dots.

River Island has a long loose cream casual cardigan with thin navy lines and a cute mini gold anchor hanging from one of the pockets (I overheard someone says she was buying it just for that) and a short sleeve sweater sporting oversized black and white polka dots with little red bows at the neck, while Oasis has several navy and white striped t-shirts and t-shirt dresses with white ‘drawn on’ collars and pockets. They also have nautical rope necklaces and chunky silver chains with big navy and white beads and baubles.

Other stores such as Zara are showing navy and white striped spring cotton sweaters with Michael Jackson inspired decorative shoulder pads made up of clusters of delicate silver chains. Primark has gotten in on the sailor style with a short V-necked navy and white striped cotton t-shirt dress featuring ruched three quarter length sleeves and teeny gold buttons adorning the shoulders as well as large imitation patent quilted totes with gold chains in black, navy and red. Other nautical bags hanging around the high street include a smallish bowling bag style from Next in navy and off white striped canvas with red leather handles and embellishments including red rosettes and anchors decorating the pockets.

Once you’ve stocked up on enough nautical pieces to cut a stylish stripey figure on the Côte d’Azur, you may want to hunt out other hot themes for spring such as military and safari looks, with muted animal prints and a subdued colour palette. Meanwhile, the tracksuit trouser has made it out the gym and onto the catwalk’s pride of place, though the powers that be dictate they should be fashioned from silk or jersey, feature a drawstring waist and cuffed ankles in a muted colour and should only be worn with heels. If paying more than £50 for sweatpants that are unlikely to see beyond the confines of your couch once the season ends, the new simplicity and luxe sportswear look can also be achieved with perforated leather, mesh inserts, biker jackets, gilets and waistcoats.

 Happy spring shopping…

Even if your party outfit’s dusted off, it still doesn’t solve the dilemma of what to put on for festive dinners with the family or low key evenings with friends, either this week or on New Years, when you want to look like you’ve made an effort but aren’t trying too hard.

Have fun with your jewellery and choose between an oversized statement necklace, large cuff, cocktail ring, long dangly earrings or wear a feathered headband to create a different look.

Equally, there’s nothing more annoying than receiving an expensive gift that will never see the light of day and knowing you’re stuck with it, when you’re just itching to cash it in and use the money towards that stunning dress you just have to have.

Though it’s tempting to buy for others what you’d really like for yourself, gift buying is about what the recipient will like and get use out of, so try to resist buying accessories you love for someone who never changes their handbag or earrings.

Shopping for the Men in your life can be the most challenging – the older ones will be happy with some new funky pyjamas or a classic but fashionable jumper that can sometimes be found on a good day at Zara, but those at the more choosy end of the spectrum, who insist you shouldn’t shop for them will have to settle for a trendy scarf - even my excessively fussy other half agreed to keep the eye-catching Gant scarf featuring brightly coloured squares I paid a pretty penny for at Selfridges last year, and has since received an inordinate amount of compliments on it. As someone who’s adamant he doesn’t like “boring and dull” (i.e. classic) colours, he also hung on to the multicoloured Paul Smith striped pyjamas which are really way too nice (and expensive) to be confined to just the bedroom…

Teenage girls should appreciate little sets of lip gloss or nail polish that are everywhere this time of year. Primark is great for really cheap sets of coloured varnishes and trendy stretchy belts with big gold clasps that look best on those under 25. They also have cozy leopard print slippers with black satin bows and cute slogan t-shirts and weeny check shorts for sleeping in for just a few pounds so you can afford to be generous. Otherwise I spotted some nifty little rubber digital watches called ‘Rocks Watch’ (www.rockswatch.com) in Fenwick that come in three sizes and a choice of 15 rainbow bright colours for only £10 including delivery if you buy online.

Shopping for Teenage boys can be less straightforward. Last year I did well with some winter M&S hats that they insisted on wearing straight away, though this time I hunted around until I spotted some brightly coloured Star Wars t-shirts I’d be happy to wear myself from H&M.  Hollister is also a good bet if you don’t mind paying more. Otherwise, there are always DVD’s and gift vouchers…

Sisters/in-law can be as easy as buying for yourself or lot more complicated… depending on how fussy they are. Aside from the trusty old pair of pretty pyjamas (you can never have too many), for those who aren’t accessory addicts or lovers of toiletries and are the type to find fault with an objectively pretty item of clothing, there’s always the Ottolenghi cookbook which is full of original recipes accompanied by mouth-watering photos.  For sisters or friends who do like to add to their wardrobe staples, I spied a good selection of belts in Zara, including a black stretch one embellished with this year’s must-have studs and a special and unusual looking feathered belt I managed to resist adding to my own collection, which went down a treat with my sister-in-law.

Mothers/in-law are pretty tricky and what looks like a great present idea can turn out to be less than ideal i.e. the four pairs of ‘right on trend’ extra long black patent leather gloves I snapped up only to realize after I’d distributed them, that although they appeared to look good, even the smallest size was too big for everyone and no one would be wearing them. By the time I got round to taking back my own pair, they’d been reduced to a paltry £3, down from £24. This year, I played it safe and stuck to pretty and useful decorative mirrored little jewellery boxes from M&S. 

Now that this year’s gift buying headache is over, it’s never too soon to start worrying about everyone’s birthdays and what to get them all next year…

You don’t have to be a 70-year old traditionalist waltz fan to balk at what some of the professional and celebrity female dancers have been wearing for the latin numbers, given that some of the ‘outfits’, especially those worn by finalist Chris Hollins’ partner Ola Jordan, would be considered risque on most family beaches.

Showing off a bit of leg in thigh grazing skirts and some toned shoulders and arms together with a tasteful amount of cleavage is de rigeur for a celebrity prime time dance show, and a benefit of all those hours spent in training, and even though we’ve come to expect the odd flash of a taut midriff or an open-backed dance number, the ribbons of fabric worn in lieu of a bikini, never mind a swimsuit…let alone a dress, worn by Ola, are little short of shocking, to the point where actress Ali Bastian’s crystal encrusted halter leotard ‘showgirl’ outfit featuring teeny fringes and a matching peach coloured feather boa ‘tail’ seemed positively demure by comparison.

Finalist Ricky Whittle and his partner Natalie Lowe are also not above flaunting their great bodies in rippling shirts cut to the naval for him and a black lace crop top and tight red mini or a teeny open-backed crotch level dress tailing into a V-shaped point at the back covered in gold discs, for her.

When she’s not wearing three or four glittery thin black straps around her back and hips, Ola’s typical outfit consists of a gold beaded bra attached to matching bottoms with a strip of material running down her abdomen and another couple of strips hanging between her legs although she has strayed from this formula to sport an eye catching red lace catsuit, which yet again was only held together with a slither of material linking the top to the bottoms -  all of which leads viewers to suspect that perhaps the programme’s costume team are experiencing a shortage of fabric, sequins and crystals this year?

When the dancers do emerge in a full length romantic dress for the ballroom routines you do get a surprise at seeing all that much material on one person. Su Judd, Strictly’s costume designer, told the Daily Mail: “We have to push the dancers to accept that rolls of flesh don’t always look glam, even though they have fabulous figures. I had a hard job to persuade Ola to wear a peachy dress with pleats covering her all the way to her neck for a ballroom number.”

“As the series has progressed, the dresses have got shorter as the celebrity dancers have gained confidence and lost any pockets of flab,”  acknowledges Su. “Everyone is saying that the dresses have been sexier this series. If we let her, Natalie would become more daring each week and she and Ricky could easily be half-naked all the time because they have great bodies.”

“Ola loves a revealing dress or an impossibly tight catsuit. When she came out in her sexy black rumba dress in the first show, Chris danced so well because he hadn’t seen her before she emerged and he was overwhelmed, ” said Su, who believes a contestant’s success has a lot to do with how they look and feel. “When there is a connection between a couple, you really see it played out on the dance floor and a lot of this stems from the chemistry of looking and feeling fantastic.”

Never mind their dancing prowess tomorrow night – we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to see if the girls can notch it up another level and reveal even more in their final effort to win this year’s coveted Strictly title…

 While watching Sunday’s results show, my friend’s text message was not to comment on the shock or indignation at seeing Jamie Archer sent home in lieu of the ‘terrible twins’ or the decidedly less gifted singer, Lloyd Daniels, rather it was to urgently relay the fact that she thought Cheryl Cole was wearing a “weird dress”.

The dress in question being a £1,335 Richard Nicholl sand coloured futuristic canvas corset dress with gold velvet panels, another example of her favoured look of figure-hugging mini dress and big hair in the form of long tumbling curls.

Never mind Cheryl’s dress – what was Dannii wearing? She’d ditched her recent slew of sleek tight strapless frocks and chic bob in favour of what resembled an out of place beach cover up - a loosely draped Lisa Ho Spring 2009 maxi kaftan dress in a large floral print with billowing three-quarter length sleeves and a daring cleavage exposing plunging neckline, which she teamed with half-crimped long hair extensions.

It was a strikingly different look from her Saturday night ensemble; a long strapless chiffony taupe gown with thigh-high slashes and ruched panels on the bodice, also by Lisa Ho, accessorised with an statement necklace made up of oversized silver discs strung together.

The previous week it had been Cheryl’s turn to get tongues wagging with her choice of get up – a cutting edge £1,500 bizarre mini fan style dress by up and coming designer David Koma, which unleashed criticism from Simon Cowell and a storm of comments, including remarks that it looked like she had stuck two wheel trims over her boobs.

This Saturday she played it safe in an open-necked navy blue draped sequined mini dress at the bargain price of just £710 from Alexander Wang, worn with scraped back hair pulled into a ponytail.

It was Cheryl’s power-shouldered tight low-cut mermaid silver micro-mini dress by Julian McDonald and Dannii’s fitted nude embellished beaded knee-length gown by Aussie designers J’Aton Couture that led to Simon Cowell’s reported comments a couple of weeks ago that they are hosting a talent contest rather than a fashion show and that they should spend more time preparing their remarks for the programme instead of focusing their energies on choosing show-stopping frocks and picking out hairstyles and accessories to perfect their ‘groomed to within an inch of their lives’ “look” each week.

If upscale high voltage girl glamour and big hair is not your thing however, then there’s always ‘Jedward’ to inspire your cool retro schoolboy influenced wardrobe. According to the Daily Telegraph’s fashion pages it’s the twins’ knack for making a fashion niche their own which is the secret of their success. Their signature style is based on undersized school blazers, ‘Pirate Radio’ T-shirts, red PVC jackets teamed with super skinny jeans and shirts and narrow ties worn with drainpipe jeans and retro-style trainers.

If the singing gets a little boring after a while and you don’t care if another long haired popstrel, with more than a passing resemblance to Barbra Streisand, wins the day over yet another Will Young look-alike, then thank goodness for the girls (and the too trendy boys) and their slavish obsession to fashion that keeps it interesting!

 Early autumn is when I realize just how many summer clothes and new dresses are still languishing in my cupboard unworn, that it’s time to give up on my quest for the perfect pair of gladiator sandals I never quite got round to buying all summer, and that, short of a couple of miracle sunshine days or someone whisking me away on a post-summer trip abroad, it’s now officially too late and the unworn dresses will have to get pushed to the back and take their chances that they’ll get to see the light of day in Summer 2010.

September is also when I tell myself that this season, any autumn/winter purchases will be limited (or mostly limited) to items I am likely to actually wear and have somewhere to go in – key points I try to keep in mind while I’m slavishly analyzing the ‘Must Follow Trends for A/W 2009’.

When I finally hit the shops, I’m all set to be overwhelmed by the dazzling array of items screaming ‘Must Have Trend for This Season’, all fighting for the attentions of my credit card. Instead, I’m confronted with rails and rails of black and grey clothes that I have to push myself to examine further. Previous Shopaholic autumns have seen me buy every type of black or grey dress, skirt and top a person could ever wish to own – let alone wear, to the point that even I can’t be tempted by yet another variation on an otherwise tempting well cut, fitted little LBD.

While I still have several hanging around from Winter 2005, I am tempted by the cute little furry gilets, though I know it’ll only be about five minutes before it’s too cold to wear them without a coat, and while a lot of them seem too big, I manage to dig out a little sheepskin one and another with long black feather type hairs that makes my husband question why I’ve bought a monkey?

While I already have racks of ‘essential white shirts’, that I’m always too cold for once we’re in October, I can’t resist my chance to recreate the Dynasty look, in a white fitted round necked shirt with supersize puffed shoulders, which is just a little less fabulous but a good deal cheaper than Balmain’s angular power shoulder jacket.

While I’m usually a sucker for a great fitting dress, what really catches my eye and has me involuntarily reaching for my wallet before I even think how much? let alone do I need it?, is an ‘I-must-look-like-a-rock-chick-now’ little black studded skirt that just screams ‘Essential Right On Trend For This Season Purchase’.

While I can appreciate the allure of a sequined jacket, especially with tuxedo pants or skinny jeans, I’ve so far managed to refrain, reminding myself that I’ll never wear it in the day and I’ll get more wear from an evening dress, but when an adorable silver sequin skirt comes my way, it’s a totally different story and it quickly falls under the heading of ‘Great Way to Tick Off Another Key Trend’.

Just when I was toying with the idea that there might not be that much to tempt me this season after all - studs and sequins, two key looks no fashionable wardrobe can pass up, least of all mine…