The rounds of office Christmas parties are commencing. Girls everywhere take a collective sigh, for the politics of Christmas party dresses have made their seasonal appearance.

You can breathe out now, because we have some great tips on picking the perfect party dress.

What is very important is to know the dress code. A friend of mine arrived at her Christmas party in a slightly above-the-knee gorgeous dress costing over £100 and was promptly turned away because the dress code specifically said long and lushious! Excessive? Maybe, but you still don’t want to stand out by wearing something the wrong length, or God forbid the wrong colour!

If you want to steer clear of black for your Christmas dress gown, go for festive colours: think sparkly, red, gold or silver and you’ve hit the nail on the head. Whatever you do, do not forget those all important spangly accessories and gorgeous glittery make up.

If it’s your bog standard party with an ‘anything Christmassy goes’ theme, hankerchief dresses and little tutu prom dresses will work wonders.

Gel bras, a God send for all flat-chested women. My underwear drawer used to consist exclusively of gel bras. They are, in all honesty, one of the world’s greatest inventions for women. Before I gave up smoking and put on a little weight, I used to rely on these squidgy friends to assist me in providing some much needed voluptuousness in the chest area.

Gel bras win hands down as far as I am concerned over Wonderbras, which are designed solely to give you two black eyes because your girls have been hitched up as far as they can go. The gel bra has a much more natural look to it and because of the consistency it looks and feels (should anyone try it) like the real thing.

My teenage years and for the vast majority of my twenties were made all the more relaxed and enjoyable because of the gel bra. I began to buy them in every single colour: black, white, red, I even had a blue one with glitter. I wouldn’t even buy women’s swimwear unless it had gel pads in the crucial area!

Fashion Style You has recently profiled a new gel bra by Jolidon and if I needed to double in size once more I would make a beeline for this beauty, no question. The designs now are far more feminine than they were in my day.

Having always been a bit of a fan of Sarah Jessica Parker, I did wonder whether or not she has ever lent her name to a particular designer or style. Whiling away the hours this afternoon, because its cold and wet outside, I set about Googling SJP.

The Bitten Line came up as a regular occurrence and it’s sponsored by SJP herself. The range is promoted as the cheapest designer ladies dresses, with one costing less than $5. Bargain I thought … but are they any good? Would you or I actually be seen dead in them?

The website itself is not very informative and it has no ability whatsoever for you to make purchases online. The entire collection is promoted by word of mouth and is only available exclusively throughout Steve & Barry stores in the US, no good for us, unless you want it enough to fly over the pond. I’d recommend a good shopping comparison site like BizRate.co.uk or Shopzilla.co.uk

The collection is reflective of SJP’s own style and taste and she used her own wardrobe as inspiration. The great thing about the collection is that it is available to every woman in every size and shape! There are over 1,000 pieces of apparel available – ladies jeans skirts etc - but it’s the ladies dresses that caught my eye - one dress in particular actually. It’s a flutter sleev e eyelet top under the eyelet trim dress in blade green! The website doesn’t say how much, but according to all the press it should be yours for under a fiver. Doesn’t include the air fare unfortunately but if you need an excuse to get to the US, now you have one!

There is a certain type of person that can get away with having short hair. I’ve only ever once been brave enough to chop my hair really short. I remember watching huge chunks of hair falling to the ground and thinking “she had better be good and not make me look like Sinead O’Connor”.

In actual fact, I loved it, and everyone commented on it. What I hadn’t bargained for, however, was morning hair. With long hair, I can wake up and if I have to face the world quickly, I can chuck it in a pony tail and no-one is any the wiser but, with short hair, no such luck.

Short hair requires maintenance, in a big way. The problem with short hair as I see it is this, you constantly have to wear make-up, you probably have to wash it every day and you can’t just get away with a quick brush through - it requires styling.

I was intrigued when I looked at a posting on catwalkfashions.co.uk as they have a fashion blog dedicated to jazzing up your short hair. Check it out for inspiration.

Fashion journalist Angela Buttolph has written a book about Kate Moss’s style. Kate Moss Style is her study of the supermodel and her outfits through the decades, distilled into a handy guide for all Kate lovers out there. Most girls (and women) have channelled Kate at some point, and aside from being a fashion icon of our time, she also has an accessible, normal street style. Buttolph breaks it down for us and reveals that in as much as Kate is a trendsetter, she does stick to certain rules of dressing. Without going into the full on list, I want to pick out a few key points that Buttolph makes, which are the linchpins, if you like, of her style.

First she never looks like she’s trying too hard: teenage kohl eyeliner, hacked-off hemlines, worn-in vintage, unbrushed hair. So relax girls, stop trying so hard….it’s all in the downtime. Second, she is a dress code rebel, wearing the exact opposite of what’s expected. Hence the gold Dsquared party dress to Glastonbury, the formal dress to the NME… So the next time you’ve gone and misjudged the occasion, don’t worry, smile your biggest smile and comfort yourself in the knowledge that you’ve pulled off a Kate Moss without even trying. Oh, and one last thing. When it comes to jewellery, don’t mess around. Follow Kate’s lead and buy diamonds. Got that?

My mind is still on the subject of hosiery when I stumbled across this picture on Flickr and fell a bit in love with this recycled prom gown cut into a short dress like a tutu and worn with this season’s must-haves ‘directional’ tights. And no black opaques don’t count, we’re talking spiderweb mesh, lace, print n’ colour, or indeed stripes. But horizontal stripes? Surely these are the fashion equivalent of a deep-fried Mars bar on the figure, but actually – surprise surprise – they’re a little punky and a lot flattering.

Perhaps I’m swayed by the coolness of Tess and her pink hair and glasses, but nevertheless here’s the lesson. Think outside the box when it comes to women’s clothing and get creative. Take any old long dress for example: snip the hems short, cut the sleeves off and just go for it. Yes it helps to have the image to power the ‘look’ but everyone’s doing it. The ex-model Twiggy has even made a BBC2 fashion show about it called Twiggy’s Frock Exchange on Tuesdays.

And if you’re scissor shy or not that rebellious, I stress again the fun of tights for an update to your look. Paris Hilton was papped in black 10 deniers with little hearts all over them, which is a cute nod to the trend. Or why not experiment with something really different from Wolford or Jonathan Aston? Pricey but top quality. Wear with a simple block colour shift dress and let your legs to do the talking.

I was watching Gok Wan’s Miss Naked Beauty programme the other night. Before we go any further, I just have to say this: Gok is a legend. A true champion of women’s fashions and self-confidence.

Anyhow, I was watching the show and saw the moment that the final 24 contestants were jet sprayed with freezing water in an attempt to remove their make up. As you can imagine, this was largely successful(!) but I did notice one girl whose lipstick remained intact. Her secret, as it turns out, is lipcote.

I haven’t come across lipcote for years, actually. It used to be a make up bag staple for my mum - her sole use for it was to stop her lipstick transferring to the side of every single cup and glass in the house. In fact, if I remember rightly, she used to give the side of the drinking vessel a big lick of the stuff as well, just to be on the safe side!

I have to say, I tend to make do without any coating. My favourite lipstick at the moment is a Lancôme in matt pink. It’s delicious and I can’t stop wearing it. Look inside my vintage handbag, my evening handbag and my beaded handbag and yes, you’ll find lots of pink Lancôme lipsticks – well, I have to make sure I’ve got a plentiful supply!

I only ever apply it once first thing and don’t have to give it another slick all day. Its even still there in the morning, just a hint and that’s after I’ve scrubbed my face with make up remover before getting into bed. I’m not sure it would survive a jet spraying session though … where’s that lipcote?

Metallics tend to feature in many of the collections, and whilst you’d expect it to be a winter trend, it depends on the finish. A/W is about more subdued hues and a matte finish; S/S more high shine and sparkle. No wonder designers love to play with metallics. Gold, pewter, silver, bronze – burnt or burnished or brushed – finding the hue for you is the key. Remember the gold Dsquared2 mini party dress that Kate Moss wore to Glasto? It was pure rock chic against a backdrop of rain and mud, proving that this doesn’t need to be high-voltage to turn heads.

If you’re going for the lean elegant look, a long silk dress with spaghetti straps in palest metallic is a sure-fire hit for everyone. Around the Christmas party season, Monsoon excels at great dresses such as these. Stella McCartney, at the other end of the spectrum, is worth checking out. But the little metallic dress (LMD?) is the party piece, but a drawback is the weight when it comes to a designer piece. Solider on, I say. Sophia Kokosalaki made it work for her A/W show, and Burberry likes nice shiny girls party dresses too. Alexander McQueen’s hourglass sheath was like mercury poured into a dress-shaped mould – perhaps a bit conceptual for an office Christmas party dress, but stunning none the less.

The high street prefers polyester, so what you sacrifice in lbs you gain in £s too. Heavyweight fashion kudos goes to Miss Sixty for a great metallic bronze dress at £105. The metallic look requires the footwear of a well-heeled gladiator, so nothing too dainty please. Now go forth and attract the metallic for you!

If there is such a thing as feminist fashion, you could define it like this: ‘The defiance of flattery, prettiness and convention; a sartorial two fingers to targeted dressing for men.’
Women’s fashions are starting to reflect the modern female’s desire to dress for her own pleasure only. This may not be a huge revelation in itself but it does herald a major shift in the right direction: the mainstream. Finally designers like Miuccia Prada and Nicolas Ghesquiere, with their avant-garde silhouettes and unorthodox proportioning, are influencing more than front row women’s fashions. I put to you the following evidence:

1. WAGs are no longer dressing like WAGs. The turbo-charged sexiness that was their selling point is no longer fashionable or, more importantly, relevant. Queen WAG Victoria Beckham wouldn’t be caught dead in that cleavage-defying vest and hot pants combo she donned for the World Cup. And rumour has it she wants a breast reduction. Porn star breasts are soooo 2006.

2. ‘Ugly’ trousers and women’s jeans. Can you remember a time when ugly trousers were this fashionable? Palazzo, peg leg, harem – gaping undercarriages, ankle-grazers, 80s style high waists and big hips. Do we really need bigger hips? As it turns out, as long as you get your styling right and balance the new proportions with strong heels and nipped waists, it’s all looking very… modern.

3. Mid-calf length dresses. Oh joy. A universally unflattering cut-off point for all but the leggiest of model, the hemlines have indeed dropped. But has our tolerance for ‘safe’ fashion gone down with them?

4. Footwear. Bother boots, brothel creepers, biker boots, buckles, spikes, studs, rivets. Jazz shoes, loafers, lace-ups, brogues, Chelsea boots. Can we get more butch?

5. Comme Des Garcon for H&M.

Tis soon the season to be jolly … apparently. If it isn’t bad enough that stores are now stocking Christmas gifts, you know that the office knees up invitation isn’t far behind.

I might slate the idea in advance but if the truth be told, I love this impending season. Is it a long dress or a short dress party? Has the company gone all-out this year to thank me for my valuable contribution or are we all headed to the pub after work stuffed up in our suits?

Not only do I have to start planning my Christmas present list, but I need to set aside some time to agonize over what the hell I am going to wear. It needs to convey beauty and elegance. I want everyone to be jealous that I found THE perfect dress and I will in future be referred to as “Office Trendsetter”.

I seem to always be drawn to the same familiar places to start with, boohoo.com and asos for cutting edge up to the minute fashion, add to this a new one I have stumbled upon recently Goddiva.co.uk. It’s all 50’s style at the moment but a Grecian design catches my eye in the style of Gwyneth Paltrow. My pick of the backless dresses is a gorgeous ivory number and a credit crunch busting bargain to boot at £38!

Debenhams usually have some great stock in for evening dresses if you want to find something a little more conservative. Other high street stores including Warehouse, Oasis, Jane Norman, Coast and French Connection will no doubt have a memorising array of choices, but for me it has to be the Grecian number, with the gold evening handbag to accompany it. I will be the picture of serenity, for the first 20 minutes at least.