Last summer saw the return of the maxi dress and it's still holding up as a favourite look this year.
The good thing about trends that live on for another year is that you can learn from your mistakes, and this summer there's no excuse for putting it together badly.
Although the maxi length is perfect for holidays, you can also wear it on a warm day in the city. But avoid the rain - soggy hems are not ideal.
Consider wearing a short bolero-length jacket over the dress (a thin leather works well) or tie a tight cardigan under the bust if you don't want to go bare.
It's important to keep close to the body on the top half to compensate for the swathes of material flapping around.
Surely nobody would think of teaming theirs with kitten heels, but just in case you thought you could get away with it - you can't.
Flats (sandals, ballerinas and even canvas pumps) are good, but so too are heavy, high heels - rectangular and not spiky.
Platforms are also on the mark, but espadrille wedges can look a bit Shirley Valentine, especially if you are planning on wearing them in town.
Of course, the wonderful thing about full-length is that it hides your legs.
Baring them is always one of the most troubling sides of summer and keeps some people in trousers throughout.
However, you've got to keep your feet bare - socks and tights do not look right poking out below the hem - and because they're the only bit of flesh anyone's going to see on your bottom half, it's well worth making sure you've had a pedicure.
The huge structured bag worn with the length has a last-year's-Hollywood-starlet feel about it. Better to team it with something smaller and slouchy slung from the shoulder, or, if you can get all your kit in it, a summer clutch.
Birth of the bra-kini!
The other day, I listened to a couple of male friends pondering over the mechanics of the backless bra.
They had, as indeed had all the men present, noticed the ad campaign on the buses and Tubes for the Maidenform version, and a debate ensued about exactly how this contraption would work.
A backless bra sounds irresistible to me, not only for backless summer dresses but also because I imagine it would avoid that horrible bulge, made more visible through thin summer fabrics, where the strap cuts into the flesh or your back. Bras and the summer months are difficult bedfellows.
The upholstery of bras is much more comfortably matched with a winter wardrobe, where they generally remain hidden. But in summer, even a pretty bra can look intrusive.
One alternative is to wear bikini tops instead, and simply accept that they will be on show. Tying them at the back halterneck style works best.
Wear bikini tops in a contrasting print and tie them under a strapless top or dress. Stripes, polka dots, florals, neons are all possible.
They will look less twee and certainly more deliberate than the sight of a half-disguised bra strap.
We're all suckers for a summer scarf
It's time to dust off your summer scarf
I appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour this week defending my stance on cosmetic intervention, written for this newspaper.
Sitting in the waiting room at the BBC, I noticed that all my fellow female guests, who were a mixed bunch, were united by wearing a scarf of some kind or other draped around their neck.
I recently wrote about scarves in this column, but since then I've noticed just how many women wear them all year round.
Even those who seem not to care much about what they are wearing appear to throw on a scarf as a gesture.
I think they act as a kind of comfort blanket, worn more for reassurance than warmth. I've got a fine wool check one from Burberry which I practically sleep in at the moment.
Apart from that, my current favourites are a brand you can buy online, called Epice, which this season has the most beautiful striped range.
They are by a couple of Danish designers, which accounts for their simple beauty, but they also have a touch of the Indian about them in their print and colour, which will brighten up any plain jacket or T- shirt.
Is G&S the new M&S?
I'm a great fan of Velvet T-shirts. They come in the softest of cottons and a rich variety of colours and shapes, and now the Velvet brand has branched out, offering us its pretty range of short dresses and blouses as well as dye dresses.
So I was interested in checking out their mother brand Graham & Spencer, the more substantial clothes line from the same people.
It's not cheap, and neither are the T-shirts, but for someone looking for separates with a cool, understated twist it's a good option - comparable in price to the diffusion lines of, say, Nicole Farhi and Betty Jackson.
The colours veer towards neutrals and the look is of the Rick Owens, Martin Margiela and Ann Demeulemeester school; leathers, monochromes, mini dresses and vests all with a pared-down style. It's more boyish than Velvet but with a sexy, insouciant feel.
And God created Yves ...
Many women owe Yves Saint Laurent, who died last week, a debt of gratitude. Without most of us realising it, he gave us clothes for the lives we lead.
When Saint Laurent started his label at the start of the Sixties, fashion was about to change.
The Brits like Mary Quant were soon to make headlines with mini-skirted Swinging London, but it took a French designer to have the influence to really emancipate fashion from the formal straits of the couture houses.
Acclaim: Designer Yves Saint Laurent
Saint Laurent brought us trouser suits, blazers, belted safari jackets, trench coats and peasant-style smocks (a modern woman's wardrobe) along with extraordinarily beautiful and exotic couture pieces - products of his highly attenuated imagination.
He was young and instantly had a heady influence in the way that only the young can, and because he was the star of the Parisian fashion industry (still then the only one that was taken seriously) what he designed was copied everywhere.
He had no particular interest in the politics of the day, but with true creative talent instinctively designed clothes for the zeitgeist --young, liberating, sexy and practical.
Without him, the staples of our wardrobe might well be very different. Eulogising is common in the fashion world, but in the case of Yves Saint Laurent his contribution cannot be overstated.
Context makes a big difference to clothes. Take the trilby-style hat - millinery's current big seller
A staple of both men and women at the racecourse, (it's a favourite of Zara Phillips), it comes into the category of classic horsey gear when paired with a tweed jacket and binoculars.
Whereas the same accessory, much beloved by It-girls, looks fashiony at this year's round of music festivals and parties (I saw Trinny Woodall wearing hers for lunch at the Wolseley restaurant this week).
However the trilby's equestrian life is likely to last longer than its fashion incarnation, since it's already beginning to look a bit predictable.
The new fashion hats are rather more strange. You can look forward to versions of the flowerpot domes seen on John Galliano's catwalk for autumn.
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