After five days of fashion shows in the capital, here is the word from the catwalks. Drop these phrases into your conversation and everyone will know you were on the front row. Even if you weren't

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1. 'Avant-bland is the new avant-garde'

Being unpretentious is the new being pretentious. JW Anderson, whose name is white-hot right now thanks to persistent rumours of him being adopted into the LVMH stable, coined this phrase to describe dresses whose texture and silhouette was inspired by Vileda Supermops and takeaway boxes. The "avant-bland" aesthetic kicked off at Céline last season, where the prints were inspired by the checks on cheap laundrette holdalls. For extra kudos, hold court with the argument that the avant-bland looks on the catwalk are the natural extension of how Phoebe Philo, current queen of catwalk cool, has made the tradition of giving artistic and retro references to a collection look old hat by her habit of shrugging nonchalantly and insisting the clothes she designs are just, y'know, stuff she wants to wear. If anyone's still listening, you could try out the theory that avant-bland and the just-stuff-to-wear philosophy is a sign of how social media has transformed the whole culture of the fashion industry. The ivory tower is, like, totally last season.

2. 'Pastels have never been so cool'

Pale pink, sky blue, mint green and buttercup yellow are the colours of the season. Two shows that got tonnes of I-want-to-wear-that-now love from the audience for their sugary colours were Preen and Emilia Wickstead. The two labels are very different in character – Preen is urban and slick and worn by Kristen Stewart; Emilia Wickstead is uptown and feminine and worn by the Duchess of Cambridge – so when they both have hit shows that use the same colour combinations, it's a sure bet there's something in the air. At Preen, a sugar-pink wrap-dress flashed its lemon yellow lining on the catwalk; at Emilia Wickstead, a yellow coat topped a pink dress. Roksanda Ilincic, whose catwalk is always a weathervane for colour trends because of her unerring knowledge of what looks most modern, also went for pastel combinations: orange and mint, lime and lemon, in acid-bright TicTac shades.

3. 'A sweatshirt and a skirt is the new jeans and blouse'

In Case You Missed It – or ICYMI, as they say on Twitter – there has been an under-the-radar fashion shift in the last year, whereby when you want to look casual you dress down your top half not your bottom half. So, instead of snazzing up comfy jeans with a pretty top, you dress a sporty sweatshirt up by teaming it with a nice skirt. There were zillions of examples of this on the London fashion week catwalks, but the winning ones were at Antonio Berardi and at Christopher Kane. Your next-season sweatshirt may have a flower on it, or it may have baseball-jacket shaped shoulder seams; your skirt will have pleats, or an asymmetric hem (adds sharpness, like a twist of lemon).

4. 'Jonathan Saunders, Preen, Berardi, Kane and JW Anderson are on fire'

Those are the names you will be raving about now. Here's your one-liner on each. Jonathan Saunders: "A belle-laide triumph. So good to see the degrade and the peony prints being revisited as codes of the house should. I'm ordering a rainbow knit and saving up for an embroidered cocktail dress." Preen: "I love how the clothes are so happy and peppy, but still cool. I've picked out the pixelated-patchwork summer dress to wear for a wedding next summer." Antonio Berardi: "He has the highest taste level in British fashion, if you ask me. And it's so well made. And Tony's such a sweetheart. He really should be so much more famous." Christopher Kane: "I was worried that his investors would pressure him into making it mainstream, but it's still quite twisted and dark." JW Anderson: "So apparently the rumoured deal between J Dubz and LVMH is totes happening, my sources tell me."

5. 'Flowers are the new slogans'

The Christopher Kane sweatshirt embroidered with the word "flower" brings new meaning to the phrase: "Say it with flowers." A few seasons ago, London fashion was all about a hi-tech print; now it's all about a peony or a lily or an orchid. But next season's flowers aren't there to represent garden party jolliness. After his Burberry show, Christopher Bailey enthused about flowers being "fragile and vulnerable", Christopher Kane talked about their "sexual undertones", while at House of Holland, dresses were decorated with the inky drawings of roses used in tattoo parlours.

6. 'I can see right through you'

This is now a compliment, by the way. Transparency is tres chic next season. The divine Burberry show will start a high-street trend for the semi-sheer lace pencil skirt, you mark my words. (Paloma Faith was already on board with this trend in the front row, wearing a bronze latex skirt through which her heart-print Burberry pants were clearly visible.) Cellophane fabric was used at Preen, and lots of tissue-thin layers of organza and lace at the exquisite Erdem show. ("If I get married next year, I'm wearing Erdem" is another LFW phrase to drop.)

7. 'Tom? He's a national treasure!'

Should anyone question why Tom Ford, the best dressed man in London and the fashion visionary of his generation, should choose to include crystal micro-mini dresses, white furry sleeves and lace-up thigh-high boots in his catwalk collection, this is what you must say. (FYI: Everyone calls him "Tom".) Most designers put edgy, critic-pleasing, highbrow looks on their catwalks and then fill their stores with more commercial, crowd-pleasing stuff. Ford, on the other hand, puts on catwalk shows which feel off-trend in their loud, glitzy sexiness – but his new store is full of exquisitely tailored suits, perfect cashmere, the most elegantly understated leather weekend bags. He's Tom. He does things his way, and who are we to argue?

8. 'Styles by name, Styles by nature'

Harry Styles looked very at home in the front row this week at Burberry and House of Holland. Could he be the next Kanye West, making the journey from music to the front row to designing?

9. 'I'll take it in M&S pink'

The huge success of this season's M&S pink coat – flagged here, and everywhere else, as the high-street must-have of the autumn – has had a knock-on effect on the catwalk, where this particular shade of soft raspberry was everywhere. Cara Delevingne wore it at Burberry; Richard Nicoll not only put it on his catwalk, but painted the benches to match. For the foreseeable future, this shade will be referred to as "M&S pink".

10. 'The 90s are back'

It's happening. After a 1980s revival that, as more than one wag has pointed out, lasted longer than the 80s themselves, the 90s were back on the catwalk. Nineties sportswear influenced the silhouettes at Jonathan Saunders while at Giles, designer Giles Deacon used classic images of Kate Moss and Amber Valetta on his dresses.

• The Fashion, our new biannual fashion supplement

The bustier dress has made a comeback after Raf Simons at Dior reclaimed the strapless silhouette. Jess Cartner-Morley selects some for your wardrobe

The catwalk model told the Guardian she wants to speak up about the lack of diversity in casting: 'People think that all models get treated the same, but there is still a lot of BS that happens'

The British model Jourdan Dunn has added her voice to a campaign led by black models for more diversity in the fashion industry. Speaking in an exclusive interview in the Fashion, the new biannual fashion magazine from the Guardian and Observer, Dunn says: "The people who control the industry … say if you have a black face on a magazine cover it won't sell, but there's no real evidence for that. It's lazy."

Dunn is one of the most sought-after models of the moment. In the last fortnight, she has appeared on the catwalk for some of the most prestigious designer names, including Alexander Wang and Diane Von Furstenberg at New York fashion week, and Burberry and Topshop in London. But in July, she shook up the industry with a tweet revealing that she had multiple experiences of being cancelled for catwalk shows for being "coloured".

"I want to talk about what goes on. A lot of people are scared to speak up. People think it's all glamorous and good and that all models get treated the same, but there is still a lot of BS that happens," Dunn has told the Fashion.

Thirteen out of 92 shows at the most recent New York fashion week featured no black models at all. Angered by statistics that showed diversity in fashion to be sliding back rather than improving, activist and ex-model Bethann Hardison recently launched a campaign aimed at exposing those designers who exclusively cast white models. In an open letter sent to the governing bodies of international fashion earlier this month, Hardison noted: "Eyes are on an industry that season after season watches design houses consistently use one or no models of colour. No matter the intention, the result is racism."

The British Fashion Council responded by saying that although it cannot control model casting, it "strongly assert[s] that all participating designers should recognise that London is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world and should consider reflecting this demographic at their shows and presentations."

However Didier Grumbach, president of the French equivalent of the BFC, described the criticism as "unreasonable".

Naomi Campbell is backing the campaign for diversity, as is the black singer and model VV Brown, who wrote in the Guardian this week that "the next time I sit at a fashion show, I hope to see a true representation of race and culture, beyond tokenism. I want my children to receive messages that tell them they are beautiful."

Dunn is hopeful that social media will amplify the voices of black models and serve as a catalyst for progress. "With social media everything has changed," she says, noting that some fashion houses now take into account the number of Twitter followers a model has when deciding which model will best bring attention to their catwalk or advertising campaign. "It's great, especially for models who want to be listened to," she says in the interview.

Forget sugar and spice, because this season's colour is not what little girls are made of

Reboot with the following: setting plaster, Pepto Bismol, vintage powder puffs. Now pink's grown up, it's no longer just for the girly bits of your wardrobe (knickers, party dresses) but for the hardy bits also. Pink coats stole the show at Céline, Mulberry, Miu Miu and Topshop; Jonathan Saunders and Simone Rocha had the front row lusting after pink skirt suits. Add a sharp ankle boot and a red lip and see the season through rose-tinted glasses.

Rochas wool-blend coat, £1,100, net-a-porter.com Photograph: net-a-porter.com

Madison purse, £245. Coach.comPhotograph: Coach

Vinyl skirt, £38, Topshop. Photograph: Topshop

Willow tote, £1,250, Mulberry . Photograph: Mulberry

Pink on the catwalk: The Jonathan Saunders A/W13 collection Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho

Open-backed peplum gown, £1,275 safiyaa.com

Blazer, £59.99 Zara.com Photograph: Zara

Block-court heel shoes £225, whistles.co.uk Photograph: Whistles

Twiggy in the 60s, Cindy Crawford in the 80s, Kate Moss in the 90s and Cara Delevingne right now. What is it that turns a model into a supermodel – and the face that represents a generation?

'This is a dress cut to show off your best assets, on the assumption that those are Pilates-toned arms'

Every time I think fashion has plumbed the bonkers depths of its own contrariness, it surprises me again. We've had the peep-toe summer boot, the dry-clean-only babygro, the LBD with edible sugar buttons for when you've been overdoing the pre-party diet and feel a bit faint. (OK, so I made that last one up, but it's only a matter of time.) And now, dear readers, we have the anti-bust bustier dress.

A bustier dress – French pronunciation – is, technically, just a dress with no straps that defies gravity by means of engineering in the bosom region. But it has also, since time began, meant bustier as suggested by the English pronunciation. It is a style of dress that celebrates the bust. Or so we thought.

The last time the look was fashionable was the 1980s, when young Sloanes wore the look to King's Road nightclubs, plumptious bosoms hoiked, hair scrunched into Elnetted volume. This year, however, the bustier dress has made a comeback, after Raf Simons took over at Dior and reclaimed the strapless silhouette, giving it pride of place on his catwalk and his in-house celebrities.

There is some smart thinking behind the rebooting of strapless. Ladylike and slightly retro, while also the cleanest, barest, least fussy of necklines, it is the point where Dior's classic femininity intersects with Simons' modern, minimalist aesthetic. However, for this combination to work, it appears that something has to give, and that something is bosoms.

The new bustier dress is cut high, so as to conceal all cleavage, since any vertical crevice would only detract from the architectural symmetry of a horizontal neckline framing the shallow angle of the collarbones. Not only that, it is – in many collections, at least – unforgivingly tight. Where the 1950s shapes were proudly cantilevered out from a tiny waist to a glorious bosom, the new-style bustier dress is a skinny cylinder wrapped around the ribs. No space for boobs within, and no room for them to spill over the top, either. This is a dress cut to show off your best assets, on the assumption that those are the Pilates-toned arms of which modern women are very proud. Breast is best? Not in fashion, it seems.

• Jess wears dress, £2,400, and heels, £610, both dior.com.

Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Sharon Ive at Carol Hayes Management.

The Labour leader looks more mature in a V-neck than in his best tailoring

Ed Miliband's problem – not, some might argue, his most pressing problem right now, but a problem still – is that dark suits do nothing for him.

A dark suit is supposed to lend gravitas, to signal both status and dependability. But Ed Miliband looks much better – more relatable – in civvies than he does in his best tailoring. More comfortable, more believable, and crucially more mature.

In a grey V-neck on the beach, he looked like a grownup – a man you could have a pint with, even. Although he would probably take you to a gastropub with really expensive olives.

In his dark suit and purple tie on the Andrew Marr show, however, he seemed to have travelled back in time to the Lower Sixth politics club. The purple tie is ubiquitous – the poppy of conference season– and the dark suit is a good suit. Good fabric, well-tailored. (I don't know where it's from, but he's worn Hackett before, and his wedding suit was by Aquascutum.)

There was nothing really wrong with the outfit, but Miliband looked awkward in it.

Justine's makeup and clothes suggested a woman not entirely comfortable with her appearance being under the microscope

In the end it was Justine who channelled the Reagans, not Ed. The power earrings, 1980s levels of hairspray and liberal application of eyeshadow were all reminiscent of Nancy. It seemed a peculiar style icon for the leader's wife to choose, not least because the full-fat hair and make-up was so out of kilter with her outfit. Her chrysanthemum print dress and sensible black pumps was recognisably New Labour woman: a tailored but not too hourglass shape; short sleeves and a knee-length hem, colours in the red-to-purple-to-black spectrum that Labour women have made their own. (See Yvette Cooper's similar look.) The disconnect between the makeup and the clothes suggested a woman not entirely comfortable with her appearance at this speech being under the microscope.

Justine's choice of label is a tellingly predictable one, which reflects the fact that the first lady issue is a problem which crosses party lines. The dress is from LK Bennett, a label that has won favour among female Tories and other British women in the public eye, such as Kate Middleton, for understated, safe-pair-of-hands, well-made-but-not-extravagant clothes. (This dress, the Bassey jacquard floral print, sells for £245.) Wearing LK Bennett suggests a desire to dress to pass muster, while keeping fashion at arm's length.

Unwilling to play up to wifely stereotypes by declaring her wifely satisfaction with Action Hero Ed to the cameras, Justine Miliband did not take to the stage as had been predicted. Instead – presumably in an attempt to appease those who were wondering where she had got to — she was given an early round of applause simply for sitting in the front row, which was no doubt intended to be touching but came off as patronising instead.

When the speech was over, Ed led his wife around the hall by hand, looking as if he were introducing a shy new contestant on Westminster's Next Top Model. If eschewing the Here's-My-Wonderful-Husband podium introduction was supposed to be a win for gender equality, it came off more like an own goal: the mute, mascara-laden Justine paired with the newly puffy-chested, macho Ed. None of this is either of the Milibands' fault. Global popular culture is increasingly in thrall to the first lady phenomenon – note the growing fame Peng Liyuan of China, now installed on Vanity Fair's best dressed list – but British political culture still finds the phenomenon embarrassing.

Miliband had a good stab at diffusing less-than-glowing critiques of his personal glamour by making a joke of it in his speech. His opening anecdote recalled how damsel in distress Ella Phillips had said of Miliband, who helped her after a bike accident, that "he was casually dressed, but he had style."

Belgian fashion designer mixes crisp poplin with gold lame, snake print accordion pleats and heavily ethnic carpet bags

Fashion's higher profile in popular culture has in turn had an impact on the exhibitions favoured by museums. Shows such as the McQueen blockbuster at New York's Met have attracted record audiences thanks to growing public interest in fashion.

The latest designer to be awarded the honour of a museum show is Dries Van Noten, who created the collection shown on his Paris catwalk while preparing for an exhibition about his design and inspiration for the city's Les Arts Decoratifs next year.

The show will honour the under-the-radar influence of a designer who brings a matchless taste level to the process of mixing influences – feminine with masculine, modern with traditional – which goes into putting together any outfit.

After a show which mixed crisp poplin with gold lame, snake print accordion pleats and heavily ethnic carpet bags, Van Noten said he had wanted "to take very feminine elements and see how far I could push them, that they would still be believable garments for modern women, strong women to wear".

The venue for the Dries Van Noten show was a vast warehouse with one wall veiled by a zig zag of Venetian-slatted screens painted in lustrous gold.

To accompany a show which the designer billed as "brittle yet tenacious" and "culturally informed", Colin Greenwood of Radiohead, wearing what appeared to be "dad jeans", played the bass guitar in the middle of the space, while the models stalked past in Japanese-style cork flatforms, or chunky sandals in cardinal red leather.

The musical accompaniment was a very Dries Van Noten touch: eccentric but not silly, notable rather than fancy, it brought a masculine element into the very feminine space of a catwalk awash with Fortuny pleats and silk.

Tamara Mellon has form as a more obvious gamechanger. As co-founder of Jimmy Choo, she helped transform the high-heeled shoe into a universal emoticon for glamour. After selling her stake in the company for a reported $135m (£84m), she is launching what she believes to be an equally agenda-setting brand at Paris fashion week.

The Tamara Mellon brand intends to steal a march on her luxury competitors by challenging an illogical retail timetable which, she believes, is confusing and offputting to shoppers. A decade of racing to beat competitors to first deliveries, and to provide novelty, has resulted in the shopfloor being out of kilter with the weather, with coats on sale in July and summer shorts in January. "Our January/February collection will sell the clothes you want to wear in those months", she said. "I don't believe women want to buy sundresses in January".

Photograph: Christophe Ena/AP

Out of kilter gear, with overcoats on sale in July and shorts in January, will cease for brand says Jimmy Choo co-founder

Tamara Mellon has form as a game changer. As the co-founder of Jimmy Choo she masterminded the high-heeled shoe becoming an emoticon for glamour. The name Jimmy Choo gained such totemic power that the spending of a month's rent on the firm's footwear could became a rite of passage for the newly independent young woman.

Mellon, having served out the gardening leave which followed her selling her stake in the company for a reported payout of $135m, is launching what she believes to be an equally agenda-setting brand at Paris fashion week.

The Tamara Mellon brand intends to steal a march on luxury competitors by challenging an illogical retail timetable which, Mellon believes, is confusing and offputting to shoppers.

Fallout from a decade of racing to beat competitors to first deliveries, and to provide "newness" on the shopfloor, has caused clothes on the shopfloor to be out of kilter with the weather, with coats on sale in July and summer shorts available in January.

At her seventh floor design studio in Paris on Wednesday, Mellon was examining a cream cashmere tunic and thigh-length ivory leather boots, which will go on sale in January.

"Our January/February collection will sell the clothes you want to wear in those months. I don't believe women want to buy sun dresses in January. And now that catwalk shows are online instantly, women aren't excited by the trends if it takes six months for them to reach stores. The consumer is way ahead of the industry here, and the industry needs to catch up."

Another early adopter of the seasonless, buy-now-wear-now, wardrobe is Stefano Pilati, the former YSL designer, who has instigated a similar approach at the Agnona label.

Mellon believes it was the pioneering business model, rather than simply the shoes themselves, which drove the success of Jimmy Choo. "That was a time when fashion magazines were realising that if they put a celebrity on the cover, it sold more – so I took that principle and applied it to what we did."

Jimmy Choo, the first British brand to set up a suite at the Oscars, quickly gained cachet as a brand associated with the red carpet.

The publication of Mellon's autobiography happens next week. The book gives her version of the power struggles which went on within Jimmy Choo. Mellon, who considers herself a feminist, says she wanted to "encourage young women to find their voice, to value themselves more highly, and to speak up in the workplace".

The higher profile of fashion in popular culture has had an impact on the exhibitions favoured by museums. Shows such as the McQueen blockbuster at the Met have attracted record audiences due to the rise of interest in, and knowledge about, fashion among the public.

Olivier Saillard, director of the Musée Galliera, in Paris, recently told the New York Times that the success was because everyone felt "free to visit fashion museums".

The latest fashiondesigner to be awarded the honour of an exhibition is Dries Van Noten, who created the collection shown on his Paris catwalk on Wedndesday while preparing for an exhibition at Les Arts Decoratifs in the city next year.

This exhibition will honour the under-the-radar influence of a designer who brings a matchless taste level to the process of mixing influences – feminine with masculine, modern with traditional.

After a catwalk show which mixed crisp poplin with gold lamé snake print accordion pleats and ethnic carpet bags, Van Noten said he wanted "to take very feminine elements and see how far I could push them, that they would still be believable garments for modern women, strong women".

The venue for the Dries Van Noten show was a vast warehouse, one long wall of which was lined with bleachers for the audience, the facing wall veiled by a zig zag of Venetian-slatted screens in lustrous gold.

To accompany a show which the designer billed as "brittle yet tenacious" and "culturally informed", Colin Greenwood, of Radiohead, wearing what appeared to be Dad Jeans, played the bass guitar in the middle of the space, while the models stalked past in Japanese-style cork flatforms, or chunky sandals in cardinal red leather.

The musical accompaniment was a very Van Noten touch: eccentric but not silly, notable rather than fancy, it brought a masculine element into the feminine space of a catwalk awash with Fortuny pleats – where one dress alone used 16 metres of ruffled, tissue-thin silk.

After weeks of rumours, the luxury goods group has confirmed its investment in the British designer

• JW Anderson's kitchen-wear wipes the floor at London fashion week
• The radical unisex designs of JW Anderson

The rumours were true! JW Anderson has sealed a deal with the luxury powerhouse LVMH, which will see major investment for his brand and overtime for Anderson, who also becomes creative director of LVMH Spanish leather-goods brand Loewe. The investment deal had been a near-as-verified industry rumour for almost two weeks, but the Loewe job was not widely predicted – although the job was vacant following the departure of another Brit, Stuart Vevers, who moved to American brand Coach in the summer.

Coming just days after LVMH announced it is also backing the young British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, the news suggests the luxury giants may be embarking on a spending spree to match the one that saw Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen transformed into marquee names – and that, once again, London is where the fashion scouts are finding the sharpest talents.

JW Anderson – he's actually a Jonathan, although the label is affectionately-slash-immaturely dubbed J Dubz by sections of the front row – yesterday described his new backers as "the Oxford University of luxury goods". It is a telling metaphor, which reveals his ambition, and how seriously he takes the industry and his career. His rise been remarkably speedy. He is just 29, and his business (which until yesterday consisted of 14 people in a Dalston studio) has only been established for five years, but already turns a profit.

Anderson described Paris yesterday as "the most sophisticated city". He will likely feel at home when he is there for the Loewe show next season, as he has certain traits in common with other designers recently appointed to major Paris houses. Raf Simons, Hedi Slimane and now JW Anderson all began their careers as menswear designers, so they bring to Paris a new perspective on this city's love affair with femininity. They are all understated men who prefer to make their impact in the design studio – no powdered wigs or catwalk cartwheels. None live in a fashion bubble; instead they are well-read, well-informed people who bring broad-ranging cultural reference points to what they do.

The announcement adds bite to Paris fashion week, coming hours before the second show by Alexander Wang for Balenciaga. Wang has recently seen his own backers, LVMH's great rivals Kering, adopt a new rising star to their own ranks in the shape of Christopher Kane; now a new star striker wiill start for the opposing team as well. The question in Paris is, will the frisson of competition bring an extra edge to the Wang game today?

When you wear trends that have been out of fashion, it is important to signal you are wearing it in the new way. Jess Cartner-Morley shows you how

'This combination marches up and shakes your eyeballs by the lapels. It is impossible to ignore'

Wearing red and black together has looked wrong for ages. Looking chic has been about being nuanced and subtle, having a beautiful wardrobe but wearing it lightly. Boho chic, layering, feminine minimalism: all those looks are about not stating the obvious. They are about an ideal of style that is deliberately difficult to skewer.

Black and red is the opposite. It marches up and shakes your eyeballs by the lapels. It is impossible to ignore, which is why poor Snow White, with her blood-red lips and raven hair, had to hide in a forest with a bunch of dwarves for her own safety. When all about you are in winter white and oatmeal, or delicate combinations of forest green and blush pinks, black and red looks flat-footed and obvious.

Well, scratch all that. Because the one and only rule you can rely on in fashion is that the look that has been sneered at for decades is exactly the one that is due for a revival, and that's where we are at right now with red and black. The last time this colour combination was chic was in the 80s, when it became an Yves Saint Laurent signature. On the YSL catwalk in those days, black and red was avant garde and daring. It mixed the exotic with power-dressing, cultural capital and boardroom cachet. This time, red and black returns on the coat-tails of the punk and 90s grunge trends. Kilts and plaid shirts have retuned our eyes to the look. But to make it look modern, the new red and black must be prettier, more delicate, than in its rough and ready street-style guise.

Back in the 80s, black and red was given a polish by adding gold. I'm not sure we're quite ready for that. (Still a whiff of beefeater, when you see a shiny gold or brass button on a red and black outfit.) A stripe of white serves the same purpose, but is a bit more modern. And if it doesn't look right to you yet, just give it a couple of weeks. Do not adjust your outfit; adjust your outlook instead.

• Jess wears blouse, £605, and skirt, £815, both by Preen, from Selfridges. Heels, £375, by Jimmy Choo.

Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson using Laura Mercier.

One of the punchiest utilitarian trends on the catwalk this season was windowpane checks. Jess Cartner-Morley goes through a selection for your wardrobe

'A windowpane or launderette check is a uniform for the urban peasantry'

This is what happens when an age of minimalism on the catwalk cross-pollinates with an era of cost-of-living crisis on the ground. You get a season in which the must-have prints to emerge from Paris fashion week, the looks most coveted among the cognoscenti, are patterns modelled on office-block windows and plastic laundry holdalls. The plainest windowpane squares and the unfashiony fuzziness of traditional launderette bag checks – bags that are lent bleakness by their habit of turning up in the shopping trolleys of the homeless – are the inspiration for some of the most fashionable coats, tunics and bags this autumn. When Chanel said fashion reflects the times we live in, that wasn't just cocktail-party chat.

There is more than a hint of Zoolander here. (Especially when people in fashion insist on referring to launderette checks as "iconic", which is gratingly let-them-eat-cake. Marilyn Monroe was iconic. The Eiffel Tower is iconic. A launderette check is recognisable.) But it is bracing to realise that the Breton stripe – which felt like post-bling fashion, a sartorial Keep Calm And Carry On sign – was, with hindsight, not austerity itself but just a staging post on the way there from bling. The Breton stripe is about a simple life, but it's the kind of simple life that involves a Pashley bicycle and homebaked flapjacks. The launderette check is just cheap and humdrum, with no references to apple-cheeked wholesomeness.

We have shifted from the jauntiness of stripes to the office-block-window effect of repeated open squares, whether neatly aligned or overlapping. This is typical of where fashion's head is at now, with its new vogue for the avant bland, which aligns the aesthetic of clothes with that of the mundane – floor mops, laundry holdalls, food packaging – rather than aspiring to the beauty of orchids or Chinese porcelain or the colours of Matisse. A Breton stripe is a uniform to be worn with pride, whether by fishermen or middle-class holidaymakers, but a windowpane or launderette check is a uniform for the urban peasantry. But if that sounds depressing, bear in mind that this look is more slimming than a stripe. Silver linings, right?

• Jess wears top, £135, and skirt, £125, both whistles.co.uk. Shoes, £240, kurtgeiger.com.

Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson using Laura Mercier.

Katy England has been directing catwalk fashion from behind the scenes for two decades. Now she has gone behind the movie camera to share her vision of British style

There are no popping flashbulbs or hovering lackeys or grandstanding egos, when I arrive to interview one of the most powerful women in modern British fashion. Instead, Katy England has arrived early at the neighbourhood cafe she has chosen; when I walk in, she looks up from her coffee and smiles. Her hair is tousled not blowdried, she definitely put her black eyeliner on herself, and her grey and black Isabel Marant sweater has an under-the-radar chic; she has a kind of artless sex appeal which makes her seem younger than 47, despite the crinkles around her eyes.

Katy England has been art directing your wardrobe for two decades, even if you haven't the faintest idea who she is. And that, for the most part, is exactly how she likes it. England is an anomoly in a fashion industry obsessed with celebrity names and front-row photo opportunities, having forged a stellar career as a power behind the throne. As the right-hand woman to Alexander McQueen, Nick Knight, Tom Ford and Kate Moss– to name but a few – she has been in the inner circle of British fashion since 1994.

Now for the first time, she is launching a project under her own name, with a short film for Vauxhall entitled Made in England. The brief, says England, was that it would "have a sense of British style". The film is surprisingly gritty and unglamorous, a miniature road movie about ordinary British teenagers. "I think Vauxhall might have expected more of a high fashion content," laughs England, "but the thing with me is, I always take things really personally." So instead of making a slick, styled, aspirational piece of fashion fantasy, she made a film "about being an adolescent and discovering the world for yourself, about how intense and emotional it is, just getting dressed up for a Friday night, when you're a teenager". There is a nostalgia to it, "because it made me think about how things have changed from how they were when I was growing up. Fashion has become more homogenised. I hate the idea that 14-year-old girls are made to feel like they have to have their hair a certain way, to have a certain body. It's like there is only one ideal way to look now. It's really harsh."

England grew up in Cheshire, the youngest of three girls. (England is her real name, by the way. "I love my name, which is why I didn't change it when I married.") After studying fashion design at Manchester Polytechnic, she came to London for a placement on Elle magazine. "Up till then, I didn't know what a stylist was. But as soon as I did, I knew that was what I would do." She worked as a stylist on the Evening Standard, and on Dazed & Confused magazine, and one day in 1994 bumped into a young designer called Lee [Alexander] McQueen in a trimmings shop in Soho. "He came over and said: 'Are you Katy England? Do you want to go for a cup of tea?' And I agreed to style his next show, and pretty soon we were together all the time. He had a little studio in the basement of Philip Treacy's shop, which Isabella [Blow] had let him have. In those early days he was so much fun. A real practical joker. We were really close – he was almost like a boyfriend, although obviously not."

Stylist is a catch-all job description which can mean everything or nothing; for England at McQueen, it was very much everything. "Lee pushed everybody. He always wanted everything to be interesting. He made you work harder and think harder. I was involved at every stage: researching collections, talking and talking, working on fabrics, doing fittings, casting models, everything. It was incredibly intense." Especially because, as England points out, history has rewritten how the young McQueen was reviled by much of the media. "Everyone said he was shocking, and vulgar."

In 2002, England had her first son, Wolf, with Bobby Gillespie; Lux was born two years later, and the couple married in 2006. Soon after, she stopped working with McQueen. "There is a culture in high fashion that does not understand you needing to get home at the end of the day. My kids were little and Lee wanted me with him all the time. At that level, designers demand such loyalty, and they don't like it if you need any space from them." She is sure, she says, that they would have worked together again at some point, "but he died before we had a chance to come back together. That's really painful". The aesthetic that England helped express at McQueen was high creativity meeting raw reality. Intricate historical references and sublimely exaggerated silhouettes would be subverted by something dark or rude or uncouth: sex-shop latex, or asylum restraints, or punk. The best British fashion has always happened at this point, which is why we as a nation are brilliant at catwalk fashion and streetstyle, but rarely dominate the mid-market between.

England now works on Givenchy menswear for designer Riccardo Tisci, and with Tom Ford for his London fashion week show. "The really great designers, the ones who are really good, are seriously intelligent people. Lee, Riccardo, Tom, Marc Jacobs – they are so clever, which makes them amazing to work with. They are such strong characters. My job is to bring some air and light into the situation when it all gets too intense. I kind of coax out of them what they want to say."

After coffee, England is headed to the Topshop headquarters for a design meeting with Kate Moss. She has worked closely alongside Moss on all her collections for Topshop. Working with Moss is easy, says England, because "we know each other really well, and we share the same aesthetic. We both love vintage, we both love clothes that are special, that feel like they have stories. When she thinks of a dress she'll start talking about where she might wear it – it's all about her life, about that Kate spirit." The pieces being created for spring, says England, will be more high end than the early Kate Moss for Topshop collections. "They are going to be beautiful, special pieces that really celebrate Kate."

The collection is all about Kate's style and lifestyle. "It's Kate-themed," says England. But does Moss really design it? "Absolutely! She's completely designing it. She's really doing it, and, what's more, she's really good at it. She knows about fashion, she knows about fit. I mean, she's been in the industry for 20 years. She's worked with all the top designers and worn all the best clothes. That teaches you a lot about fashion, actually."

• Watch Made in England

Forget Bet Lynch. Jess Cartner-Morley finds a selection of animal prints for your wardrobe

Elizabeth Taylor's Bulgari jewellery sets off Italy's postwar glory years in V&A's The Glamour of Italian Fashion show

Richard Burton once said that in the nine months Elizabeth Taylor spent in Rome filming Cleopatra, she learned just one word of Italian: "Bulgari", the jewellers.

The extraordinary glamour and craftsmanship of Italian fashion in the second half of the 20th century – and how the fashion industry helped to transform the fortunes and image of a country devastated by the second world war – are to be the focus of The Glamour of Italian Fashion, a new exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in April 2014.

The exhibition will deliver a feelgood fillip to an Italian fashion industry currently in crisis. The fashion industry's appetite for newness has led to Italian designer fashion, dominated for decades by the same names – Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana – finding itself overshadowed by exciting new design talent in London, Paris and New York. The level of concern in Italy about the status of its fashion industry was shown during the most recent Milan fashion week, when the city's mayor took the unusual step of co-hosting a gala opera evening at La Scala with Jonathan Newhouse, of magazine powerhouse Condé Nast. The purpose of the event was to sprinkle a little much-needed sparkle onto Milan fashion week, which has found itself squeezed out of the limelight by the resurgence of the London shows that immediately precede it.

Fashion emerges in the exhibition as a hero of Italy's postwar resurgence. The "Sala Bianca" fashion shows of the early 1950s were the first to bring together the previously disparate worlds of fashion and tailoring in Rome, Florence, Milan and Naples, creating a new notion of Italian style as a unified concept that played a crucial role in boosting the image of Italy abroad. The exhibition will include the Bulgari diamond and emerald jewellery given by Richard Burton as a wedding present to Elizabeth Taylor; a Mila Schön gown worn by Lee Radziwill, sister of Jackie Kennedy, at Truman Capote's 1966 ball at the Plaza hotel; and several pieces by Emilio Pucci, whose label was instrumental in introducing Italian fashion to the American market. (When Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, she was buried in her favourite Pucci dress.)

In the postwar era, Italian fashion successfully navigated the transition of fashion from the craft of dressmaking to machine-made high-fashion, becoming the ready-to-wear capital of Europe. Italy also led the field in the shift from an industry modelled around family businesses to one in which the cult of individual designer personality became paramount. The exhibition celebrates how, in this era, Italian fashion proved adept at moving with the times – a skill it seems to have lost a grip on during the 21st century.

Speaking after the launch, curator Sonnet Stanfill said the exhibition could not be simply characterised as a story of rise and fall. "I don't think fall is the right word. There is no doubt that Italian fashion faces challenges, particularly from production in China. But as the emerging markets become more sophisticated, they offer more and more opportunity to Italy. Increasingly, the new consumers value the 'Made in Italy' label, which they see as both a souvenir and a guarantee of quality."

The last room of the exhibition will feature a series of filmed interviews with Italian fashion designers discussing the future of their industry. "The question of the future of Italian fashion is one that we need to face squarely," Stanfill said.

The show is the first of three fashion exhibitions the V&A will stage during 2014, as it asserts its positioning as "the home of fashion" in an era when museums are increasingly turning to the mass appeal of fashion to pull in audiences. After the Italian Fashion show, which runs from April to July, the museum will stage an exhibition of the history of wedding dresses, and a retrospective of the work of the fashion photographer Horst.

US chain J Crew opens its first London store this week. To mark the occasion, creative director Jenna Lyons shares her top 10 style rules with us

1. Don't divide your wardrobe into smart and casual, but mix them up

"For example, if you have one of our flip-hem wool skirts, you can wear it smart and flirty with a blazer and shirt and jewels and a heel. But you can also wear it dressed down, with an oversized sweatshirt and New Balance trainers."

2. Trend is a dirty word to me

"What I care about are changes in proportion. When it feels like pants are getting skinnier, or waistbands are moving a little higher, that matters to me. But we're not about clothes you buy because they're on trend, we're about beautiful pieces you buy because you want to wear them every day."

3. Freshening up your look doesn't always have to be about buying something new

"We might have a sweater on sale for six months, and we'll shoot it in six
different ways for the catalogue, which comes out monthly. It's a
challenge, but that's where the fun is. We're all about suggesting new
ways to wear the clothes you have."

4. Party dressing should never be head-to-toe shine and sparkle

"If you're wearing a jewelled top, then maybe wear it with a menswear trouser and a loafer. Things that play off each other, instead of matching up, create a fun mood."

5. Details matter

"I'm obsessed with our double-faced cashmere grey T-shirt, which has a lime green lining. That little glimpse is such a great surprise."

6. Mix colours in your jewellery, as well as your clothes

"Try a stack of bracelets on each wrist, and rings on both hands, in a mix
of yellow and rose-gold."

7. Don't feel you have to wear a quirky look every day

"Sometimes you are in the mood for a white shirt – that's fine. You can totally default to a pair of black or navy pants. That's always allowed!"

8. A masculine element will make any outfit more chic

"Menswear is at the heart of everything we do at J Crew. Even if it's a very fancy, feminine piece, like a jewelled T-shirt, if you drill down you'll find a tailored shape at its root."

9. Don't ignore all those fabulous neon orange and moss-green pieces because you are not confident with colour

"Colour isn't easy for anyone. It's not easy for me! It's a challenge. It feels good to embrace a challenge."

10 You can't go wrong with cashmere

"A pair of cashmere socks might not be original, but it's always a great Christmas gift, because nobody buys themselves cashmere socks."

'It looks most modern when it isn't trying to be saucy'

Even in 2013, there are still places where the inhabitants lack the sophistication to recognise leopard spots and tiger print as a fashion message, and insist on a boneheaded interpretation of it as an animalistic come-hither. Namely, Chessington World of Adventures. Where, according to this year's best news story, the giraffes and big cats are barely able to distinguish between a woman in a leopard-print Zara blouse and an actual leopard. For their own safety, visitors wearing animal print are being given grey boiler suits to wear, in a utility-chic take on the neckties they keep behind reception at the Ritz for inappropriately dressed visitors.

I'm not planning to take on the actual tigers in this argument. But I'd hope that, what with evolution and all, most readers have a more nuanced understanding of how it is appropriate to respond to a woman wearing animal print. In fact, if anyone is still with the Chessington creatures on this one, I am here to suggest you think again. Times change. (That's kind of the point of fashion, to be honest.)

Animal print can be done with bad taste, obviously. Bedlinen, for instance. And there will never be anything wrong with classic animal-print hotness – a Dolce & Gabbana-esque leopard-print and black lace dress, say. But animal print looks most modern when it isn't trying to be saucy. Carine Roitfeld in her leopard-print coat; Eva Mendes in her animal-print tracksuit bottoms. A just-below-the-knee pencil skirt in animal print, as seen at Burberry this season, is much more of the moment than a mini. And note that snow leopards, endangered in real life, are flourishing on the high street. Abstracting the print by making it monochrome makes it less literal and more sophisticated.

It's easy to forget this, because the traditions of animal print meaning up-for-it are ingrained in all of us, not only giraffes and boneheads. Which means that even the sophisticated fashion consumer sometimes has a kneejerk reaction to it. And so it's up to us to liberate the animals from their traditional cages. And no, I don't mean that literally. That's the point.

• Jess wears dress, £375, by L'Agence, from matchesfashion.com. Heels, £775, jimmychoo.com.

Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson using Kiehl's Skin Rescuer.