Thought the catwalk counted for everything in fashion? Think again. Film and television play a huge role when it comes to influencing our style.
The impact Sex And The City had on the average woman is testimony to the power of popular culture. Overnight, it put Manolos, Cosmopolitan cocktails and iBooks on the map as well as introducing us to "fashionistas".
Fashion fantasies have been played out on film since the golden era of Hollywood.
Even if trends aren't picked up immediately en masse, the chances are a canny fashion designer will use them as inspiration for a collection further down the line. (Jean Paul Gaultier's summer 2008 collection pays homage to the Pirates Of The Carribean film series).
So will Keira Knightley's sumptuous biascut satin gown in Atonement trigger the same furore Joan Crawford's white organdy dress did in the 1932 film Letty Lynton?
Created by the legendary costume designer Adrian, the latter dress was copied by Macy's department store in New York and 500,000 were sold in under a week. Miuccia Prada already seems to have gone gothic Sweeney Todd-style, judging by the hairdos in its latest ad campaign.
Here, we predict which TV series and movies will be influencing what you wear in 2008.
Peer pressure: The too-cool-for-school kids of Gossip Girl
GOSSIP GIRL
Expect to be blown away by a groundbreaking new teen drama called Gossip Girl.
Coming to ITV2 in March, this show resembles an advert for a sexy, young fashion label. It might be aimed at teens, but just like The O.C. and Dawson's Creek, it's set to become the guilty pleasure of stylish grown-ups, too.
Based on the novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl is narrated by a know-it-all character whose mischief-making blog about her circle of friends can have disastrous effects.
The plot revolves around a group of good-looking, hung-up, super-rich kids growing up on New York's exclusive Upper East Side.
Due to the characters' seemingly endless disposable wealth, the combination of desirable New York City locations and styling by costume designer Eric Daman, fashion is at the very heart of this programme.
Daman, a former assistant costume designer on Sex And The City, based outfits on real-life East Coast socialites such as Lydia Hearst-Shaw, which means the characters shop in the cool Meatpacking District fashion boutiques such as Stella McCartney, then throw in a little Chanel or Ferragamo.
STYLE TO STEAL: The show has placed an unknown label - Lorick, designed by former model Abigail Lorick - onto the fashion map.
The signature look is grown-up clothes a daughter might pinch from her mother and wear in a funky way.
The jacket is key, worn with a full skirt or a cute beret.
So far the label is available only in the U.S. and Japan, but watch this space.
Meanwhile main character Blair's style (think Peaches Geldof-meets-Katie Holmes) is sweeping the States - grown-up but still girly, with lots of bows, frills, little hats and a scarf tied at her neck at all times.
Anticipated: Brooke Shields will star in Lipstick Jungle, written by Sex And The City author Candace Bushnell, in the autumn
LIPSTICK JUNGLE
You'll have to wait until autumn for Lipstick Jungle, the hotly-anticipated television serialisation written by Candace Bushnell, author of Sex And The City.
But in the U.S., recently released pictures of the cast are already getting fashionistas hot under the collar.
The show follows the lives of three high-powered, attractive forty-somethings - a movie executive, a magazine editor and a fashion designer.
Brooke Shields, Lindsay Price and Kim Raver star. The series will air in Britain exclusively on LIVING TV.
I would put money on Victory Ford (played by Raver) being the one every woman wants to look like in her softly tailored pencil skirt, neatly cropped jacket, white shirt and square-toe platform high heels combo.
STYLE TO STEAL: Lipstick's leading ladies use fashion as a weapon in a playful war of one-upmanship: Wendy (Brooke) shows how to do modern power-dressing (in the style of Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Donna Karan) while still thrilling an all-male boardroom; Victory (Miu Miu, Dolce, Gucci) shows how to take fashion to the extreme; and Nico (Versace, Burberry) sheds light on the plus points of working on a glossy magazine, i.e. clothes, clothes and more clothes.
Keeley Hawes in 1981-set Ashes to Ashes. Some of her best pieces were found in Camden Market
ASHES TO ASHES
The eagerly awaited follow-up to ITV's police comedy-drama Life On Mars arrives this Thursday evening.
The time-travelling show has moved into the early 1980s, which means we'll be seeing Bowie-esque jumpsuits, white high heels and slogan T-shirts. Hang on, aren't these already in fashion?
"You can't use anything someone might have picked up in H&M," explains the show's costume designer, Rosie Hackett, who began her career as a fashion stylist working on 1980s pop videos.
She created Annie Lennox's showgirl outfits for the Diva album and was in her element researching costume archives for Ashes To Ashes.
"Research is paramount because the show was specifically set in 1981," she adds. "I studied back issues of Vogue and TV Times. It's important to get a whole strata of different people and look at what they wore."
It's Gene Hunt's (Philip Glenister) new sidekick DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) who gets the best gear.
"Most of Keeley's stuff was made because we needed doubles for action scenes," says Hackett.
"Good sources of clothes included Camden market. Luckily, because they are the cut of the moment, I found some original high-waisted, skinny, Falmer and Wrangler 1980s jeans on eBay."
STYLE TO STEAL: In a word, jumpsuits. Try Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel, Nicole Farhi, Loewe, Topshop Unique, Preen and Donna Karan this season.
Don't miss episode two when DI Drake visits The Blitz club in London wearing a cream jumpsuit, a gold sash and dripping in jewellery. Look at how we used to wear accessories (matchy-matchy) and where we pinned cutesy, girly accessories (everywhere).
You'll get a sense of dÈj‡ vu looking at the many young Princess Diana lookalikes, too, from printed silky shirts to white pumps with bows.
Go gothic: Helena Bonham Carter's plunging necklines and spectacular crinolines set the 18th-century scene for Sweeney Todd
SWEENEY TODD
It was always a case of when, not if, this movie would affect fashion. What will begin this summer with some frills, puffed sleeves and brooches looks set to burst into full Victoriana by the end of the year.
Tim Burton never scrimps on hiring the world's best costume designer for his visual masterpieces and Sweeney Todd is no exception.
Colleen Atwood has received her seventh Academy Award nomination (she won best costume Oscars for Chicago in 2003 and Memoirs Of A Geisha in 2006) for her outstanding gothic 18th-century costumes in the director's latest film.
Even more than Helena Bonham Carter's plunging cleavage and spectacular crinolines, the highlight is Johnny Depp.
Surely Gothicloving designers such as Alexander McQueen and Gareth Pugh, as well as those who love historical frills and lace - from Christian Lacroix to Vivienne Westwood and Olivier Theyskins - must be poised to take up where Atwood finishes?
Everything from Depp's billowing white blouses to his velvet waistcoats, lacetrimmed gauntlets and twisted fob scarves are a visual treat.
Newcomer, Jayne Wisener, 20, who plays the innocent and vulnerable heroine Johanna who has been locked in an ivory tower by her guardian, wears gowns tinged with a dusty Miss Havisham-esque vibe.
STYLE TO STEAL: A Gothic fashion revival has been on the cards for some time and this movie, in cinemas now, looks set to finally spark it off.
The lavish Prada spring 2008 campaign featuring models wearing seemingly powdered "bird's nest" hair and skirts that puff out from the waist.
The Gothic Victoriana look promoted by this film sees the erogenous zone shift upwards to the neck, and we are bound to be wearing lashings of velvet and beaten leather.
Will East End-born British designer Alexander McQueen use the movie to pull off some theatrical inspiration? I'd say, count on it.
27 DRESSES
Written by the same screenwriter who successfully transformed the novel The Devil Wears Prada into a great movie (Aline Brosh McKenna) comes the incredibly girly, feelgood film of 2008.
27 Dresses stars Katherine Heigl (from Knocked Up and Grey's Anatomy) as Jane, a wedding-obsessed peoplepleaser, who is something to do with an eco-clothing brand.
Jane has been a bridesmaid 27 times but never a bride, which will immediately strike a chord with the fashionista sisterhood. She gets her kicks by becoming a semiprofessional maid of honour, advising and planning the wedding and enjoying the actual celebrations a little too much.
The film, which is set over one summer in New York and Connecticut, charts the meltdown she suffers when her gorgeous younger sister Tess, a fashion model, comes to stay and falls in love with Jane's boss, who is secretly the love of Jane's life.
Through Tess, who has just stepped off the plane from the Milan fashion shows, costume designer Catherine Marie Thomas gets to channel all the trends for summer 2008 - from swingy, thigh-skimming tunic shifts, to featherweight chiffon florals, soft neutral tailoring, sporty playsuits in lemon and white, and sparkling Swarovski beaded micro-frocks with high heels.
27 Dresses opens in the UK next month.
STYLE TO STEAL: Tess has clearly bundled some or all of the looks she wore on the Milan catwalks into her suitcase, from Cavalli style prints to Moschino-esque swishy, babydoll skirts, and more than a few neutral tops and frocks with a full skirt and tiny waist from Prada.
Her wardrobe is full of the sort of soft tailoring that spring is all about. The fitted silhouette with a nipped-in waist, bare legs and high-heeled sandals sum up the mood of the moment.
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
LAST seen almost 20 years ago riding into the sunset, Indy's back for a fourth adventure.
Apart from Harrison Ford - now 65 - the best bit about the films were the comic book costumes. These harked back to a time when men dressed like Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart and ladies either wore Katharine Hepburn-style trouser-suits or Jean Harlow bias-cut satin gowns.
Given the all-star line up - which includes Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and Cate Blanchett - you just know this film is going to be great.
Director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas haven't scrimped on hiring Hollywood's finest costume designer either.
Mary Zophres was responsible for the fabulous creations in Catch Me If You Can, Something About Mary, Bewitched and Ghostworld.
This summer is all about safari chic. For inspiration, look to shots of the newly bobbed and brunette Cate Blanchett in jodhpurs and a pale grey jacket on the set of the film.
Karen Allen (who was also in Raiders Of The Lost Ark) plays the tomboyish Marion Ravenwood, who gets to wear laundered cotton shirts, waistcoats and wide-leg trousers, all of which could have come straight from Harvey Nichols.
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, has its UK release on May 22.
STYLE TO STEAL: Safari chic at its best on Cate Blanchett.
On the catwalks the sort of buttoned and belted safari look was big with everyone from Michael Kors to Stella McCartney, Donatella Versace, Hermes and Proenza Schouler.
Look for soft tailored jackets and shorts in gorgeous colours in sateen finishes - dark gold, bronze, ochre, chartreuse, olive green and chocolate - and wear with a wide brown belt to give you vital waist definition, or add a waistcoat like Indy's love interest Marion.
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