You see? Despite all the millions of fashion magazines and columns, like this one, offering advice and urging restraint, there are still so many women out there who leave home without first having checked themselves in the mirror.
I understand that 2007 was a particularly difficult year when it came to finding anything remotely wearable in the shops.
We saw on the catwalk and then copied ad nauseam by the High Street clearly extreme sartorial statements such as wedge shoes, corset belts, smocks, body-conscious mini dresses, voluminous slogan T-shirt dresses, Sixties swing jackets, jodhpurs, man trousers, animal prints, and on and on and on.
No matter how many times I encourage women to find their own personal style and never to copy a designer look wholesale, from head to toe, they just ignore me!
How many women did I see at Christmas parties this year dressed like a Christmas tree in sequins, with a shiny corset belt on top, and opaque black tights, and wooden wedges?
Even more galling, I think, given the amount of money they have to spend on clothes, not to mention the services of stylists, hairdressers and make-up artists, is the fact that so many famous and quite stunning women fell at the first hurdle in the style stakes.
Even those celebrities who ordinarily tend to get it right, such as Kate Moss, of course, and Eva Longoria, chose 2007 as the year to let their mania for shopping blind them to the fact that the latest catwalk look just might not suit them.
The good news is that next year it should all get a bit more tasteful again, with lovely easy looks like sexy Seventies military, with lots of sharp, tailored khaki, flattering flares and grown-up tuxedo dresses.
In the meantime, though, let's learn from the mistakes of women who really should have known better, and ask ourselves, What on earth were they thinking?
LEGGINGS
I am not fond of leggings at the best of times. Comfy, yes, flattering, no. Do you really want your co-workers to see the inside curvature of your thighs, or the contours of your bottom?
There is only one garment worse than leggings, and that is shiny leggings, as chosen by Victoria Beckham.
Leggings: From left: Posh, Lindsay Lohan, Zandra Rhodes
Lindsay Lohan looks like a hooker in hers, Juliette Lewis looks clearly uncomfortable and sausage-like, while Zandra Rhodes, who at least likes to have fun with her outfits, has put her gold pair
under a dress, really the only sane option with a garment that should have died out with the Eighties. You have to be careful when wearing leggings.
I bought a silver pair by Les Chiffoniers for £585 to wear on Christmas Day, but made sure I wore them under a sheer chiffon skirt, and a grey cashmere sweater; even so, my nephew hung a chocolate Santa on me, thinking I was the tree.
IN 2008: Women are not going to give up leggings without a fight - in the spring, they come in white, lemon and even pink.
TARTAN
Tartan. Hmmm. Every few years it makes a comeback and while it can look fine - if you are Scottish, and live on a moor - it can be a little loud on the rest of us.
Tartan: Left to right: Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss, Ellen Rives
I wonder what Ellen Rives, partner of Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard, was thinking when she put on this tartan dress. And what's with the white pop socks and the petticoat?
Gwen Stefani, a woman of whom I have never seen the point, is surely in her dressing gown.
While Daisy Lowe (sort of, her step-daughter) has grasped two 2007 trends (the corset belt and the tartan prom) and thought she would put both on at once.
Even Kate Moss only just gets away with tartan (damn her!), wearing her boyfriend's shirt, which is really the only time you should ever go mad with plaid.
Her sprayed-on skinnies are a useful illustration of just how hard this particular trend was to wear, even for a supermodel.
IN 2008: There will still be a smattering of tartan, but nothing head-to-toe. Busy graphic prints, though, will be everywhere.
SOCKS
It's amazing. Every time I sit in the front row and think, no, that will never catch on, not in the real world - it damn well does!
This landmark trend was kickstarted by Miuccia Prada and picked up by every High Street store you can think of.
Socks: From left: Joss Stone, Agyness Deyn, Sarah Jessica Parker
I wonder what women - many of them with children, and careers, and their sanity - think when they pull on a pair of thick, grey, ribbed socks in the morning, before shoving them into bright patent platforms.
That their boss will take them seriously? That men will want to peel them off?
All I know is that unless you are 12, you should have avoided this trend. But many of you loved them.
Sarah Jessica Parker resembled a fashion victim in platform Fendi bondage sandals and several outsize knits.
Abi Titmuss, who is clearly sheep-like given her wide black patent belt, another of 2007's most ubiquitous mistakes, didn't understand that the new sock has to at least be ribbed, cover the knees, and not resemble a Seventies pop sock.
British Model of the Year Agyness Deyn just about gets away with hers, given her gorgeous knees and sense of humour. Not sure about Joss Stone.
IN 2008: the big sock is gone, but could well make a comeback in the autumn. Colourful footless tights seem to be next summer's big hosiery trend.
HIGH WAISTS
Last year, the designers got together and decided they just had to wean us off our hipster bootcut trousers.
Rather than come up with something flattering that might suit women of all shapes and sizes, they all said: "What about those very high-waisted trousers worn by matadors, last seen in the late Seventies?
High waists: From left: Mischa Barton, Kylie Minogue, Eva Longoria
"The ones that make your bottom look very long, and accentuate a round tummy?"
Kylie Minogue, who is barely 5ft tall, looks positively drowned in her boy-cut pair (she is also wearing a swing jacket; if you still have one of these, please throw it away), while Coleen McLoughlin, who has a lovely figure and great sense of style, looks like a blue elephant in her over-wide denim.
Eva Longoria usefully illustrates the fact that, once you are no longer a teenager, you should not experiment with too many new trends at once.
And Mischa Barton, well, what can I say? There is something worryingly 1940s about her shorts, which manage to be terribly unsexy.
IN 2008: I am afraid there are a few high waists still in store come the spring, but on the whole, trousers return to being well cut, with a slight flare.
Shoe boots: Naomi Watts
SHOE BOOTS
If I had to nominate the very worst fashion trend of 2007, it has to be the shoe boot.
Almost every designer brought out a pair and, surprise, surprise, almost every woman bought a pair.
Why? Perhaps they thought they were getting some sort of twoforone bargain. To my mind - and you have only to look at this picture of the normally soignée and elegant Naomi Watts - a shoe boot shortens the leg and makes the wearer, no matter what she has teamed with this hideous, spike-heeled monstrosity, resemble nothing other than a fashion victim.
Tyra Banks, an ex-model who should know better, would look much more feminine in a pair of strappy heels.
IN 2008: Do not be tempted to buy a pair in the sale. This time next year, the trend will be over.
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