'A type of print that we are used to seeing over a few square inches of men's business attire is suddenly head-to-toe on the ladies'

I have a theory about the current fad for geometric prints. I blame men. It is modish to attribute this season's vogue for eye-popping geometric repeats to a 1960s trend, but I am not convinced. Retro references are the easy reach when decoding new clothes, but fashion has become too restless for decade revivalism to get a grip on us.

Instead, I would trace this outfit to the traditional menswear prints of the tie and the pocket square. What I'm wearing is more or less a supersized handkerchief. What makes these prints so arresting – they were pegged as a catwalk-look-that-won't-catch-on, but have been a surprise hit on the high street this season – is that they are out of context and blown out of scale. A type of print that we are used to seeing over a few square inches of men's business attire is suddenly head-to-toe on the ladies.

You see? Men. The undertow of fashion right now is from girliness to androgyny. The surface ripples flow this way and that, but for the past few years that has been the direction of travel. You might not notice it when you're out shopping – your head turned by a sequinned sweater or skater skirt – but my bet is that at the end of each recent season, your wardrobe has had more trousers and fewer dresses, more straight edges and fewer frills, than it did at the start.

The pocket-square print has a pleasingly old-fashioned, bluestocking quality to it. Think of it as a modern alternative to the classic spriggy Liberty floral shirt. Like those beautiful, tiny-scale Liberty flowers, the mini squares and hexagons of the pocket-square prints are comfortingly familiar, a part of our visual heritage we almost take for granted.

Of course, you don't want anyone taking you for granted, so you need to wear the geometric print in a decidedly modern way. It is in this spirit that I am, as you can see, braving not one but two geometric prints at the same time. This certainly has impact, although it could hardly pass as easy on the eye, and is probably best avoided in the company of those prone to migraines. Although if anyone complains, you know who to blame.

• Jess wears shirt, £475, by Miu Miu, from net-a-porter.com. Trousers, £39.99, and heels, £39.99, both from Zara.

Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson at danirichardson.co.ukusing Giorgio Armani Cosmetics and Skincare.

Snowy Linlithgow provides a showcase for traditional crafts with a Lagerfeld twist

In a letter to his wife Clemmie from the Duke of Westminster's Scottish estate in October 1927, Winston Churchill wrote admiringly of the prowess of a fellow member of the duke's party. "She fishes from morning to night, and in two months has killed 50 salmon," he noted.

Her name was Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel who as the lover of the duke spent long summers in the Highlands between 1924 and 1931.

On Tuesday night the Parisian house of Chanel upped sticks to celebrate its little-known Scottish connections with a catwalk show titled "Paris-Edimbourg".

Karl Lagerfeld has staged shows in St Tropez, Shanghai and the gardens of Versailles. But proved that for sheer atmosphere it is hard to beat a glorious Scottish ruin on a snowy night. In the courtyard of Linlithgow Palace, fire baskets raged around a fountain which Scottish legend says flowed with wine to honour Bonnie Prince Charlie's visit in 1745.

Linlithgow was the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, who became queen consort of France, and Franco-Scottish links were woven through the evening. The army of Scottish umbrella-bearers sheltering guests from the snow were issued with Chanel cologne and instructions to wear no other. Trays of champagne alternated with earthenware pitchers of hot ginger and whisky. In temperatures around -4C, the latter were more popular.

Lagerfeld updated the 1920s Scottish country house aesthetic which beguiled Coco with a phalanx of modern references. Tartan came as an allusion to punk, worn with studded boots; as a throwback to the Lagerfeld-designed Chanel tartans of the 1980s with It model Cara Delevingne in a Madonnaesque silhouette of slouchy dancer's jumper, cute short skirt and thick tights. There was a nod to the tartans loved by Alexander McQueen in the long coats of gothic grandeur.

Lagerfeld said before the show he had been studying Scottish history because he "liked to arrive informed". It showed. Even beyond the obvious – the 2.55 bags given a sporran twist, the tartan caps – there was a toughness in the warrior-like eyeliner, the flat boots, the layers that felt indigenous to these parts, even paraded before 350 guests flown in from around the world for a show conservatively estimated to have cost £2m.

Pearls, instead of being strung around the neck in Rue Cambon fashion, hung pear-shaped from ears as they would have done when this courtyard was peopled by kings and queens. The show closed with a red-haired model in a high-collared snowy white gown, as if the ghost of Elizabeth I was once again vanquishing that of her cousin Mary.

Scotland was an inspiration for the most iconic of Coco's creations, the elegant suit in tweed – or bouclé, as it was known in her Paris ateliers. While staying on the duke's estates, Chanel, with her eye for elements of menswear that could be appropriated to modernise women's fashion, took to borrowing the Duke's tweeds. Photographs show her in her Scottish attire: dressed in a man's tweed jacket, long cashmere cardigan, trousers and sturdy boots, several dogs weaving around her feet. Liberating women from corsets and strictures to give them ease of movement was at the core of Chanel's design philosophy, and she embraced the freedom of country clothes designed for outdoor life.

Chanel grew fond of Scottish tweed, with its irregularities and natural suppleness, and began sourcing fabrics from a local tweed mill to be made into soft two-piece skirt suits for her Parisian house. She would gather leaves, moss and earth from her walks in the Scottish countryside, take them to her tweedmaker and ask him to incorporate those colours in the weave.

Chanel's vision of an elegant tweed suit, now a byword for Parisian chic, was a radical move at the time. Her French workshops were mystified by her enthusiasm for the rustic fabric. But Chanel persisted, making tweed a signature fabric of the house. In 1927, American Vogue reported that "Chanel, an important influence on modes, whose clothes are invariably simple, practical, and beautiful, is making a feature of models of Scotch tweed in her recent collections."

The Linlithgow show also celebrated the economic legacy of Chanel's love affair with the country. In October this year Chanel acquired Barrie Knitwear, a Scottish specialist that has long been a manufacturer of Chanel cashmere. The deal saved 176 jobs in the Hawick mill, threatened with closure after owner Dawson International was placed in administration in August.

Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel's president of fashion, described the deal as "natural, as the factory has worked with us for more than 25 years … through this acquisition we reaffirm our commitment to traditional expertise and craftmanship, and our wish to safeguard their future."

It was also a shrewd business move for a label that relies on knitwear for around 30% of its ready to wear sales. The message of the Metiers d'Art series of catwalk shows, of which this was one, is to underscore the artistry and skill that underscore the Chanel brand – and to remind the industry of the role Chanel plays in sustaining small-scale producers who would otherwise struggle to stay afloat in an industry increasingly dominated by fast fashion.

While Scotland made an impression on Chanel, the designer left her mark on Scotland in turn. In her biography of Chanel, Justine Picardie, editor of Harpers Bazaar and author of a biography of Chanel which examines her links with Scotland, writes that the designer decorated her Scottish mansion, Rosehall, with hand-blocked French wallpaper and installed the first bidet in the Highlands.

• This article was amended on 5 December2012. The original subheading placed the Chanel show in Edinburgh rather than Linlithgow. This has been corrected.

The fit and flare skirt is a pencil skirt that kicks out at the bottom. Jess Cartner-Morley selects a few examples

The Vogue editor-in-chief is rumoured to be on the US president's shortlist for ambassador to France or the UK, and there's every reason to believe she would be up to the job

In the winter of 2008-09, with America reeling from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Giorgio Armani contacted Anna Wintour for advice. With a huge new flagship store on Fifth Avenue due to open during the approaching New York fashion week, he was deliberating over how best to PR the launch. (One does not attempt any major event at NYFW without getting Wintour onside. Basically, if Anna's not coming, your party is a massive fail, however many skinny actors you can herd down the red carpet and however fancy the goody bag.) Would a lavish party look insensitive given the economic climate, Armani wondered? Would a luxurious but more intimate soiree be more appropriate?

I was there on the night Armani opened his Fifth Avenue store with a low-key cocktail event and gave a speech to an audience that included Leonardo DiCaprio and Alicia Keys, announcing that, in lieu of a grand party, he was donating $1m (£0.6m) to New York City public schools, to celebrate the new store in a way that benefited the city. Standing at the podium, he was flanked by mayor Michael Bloomberg and Wintour. The night was a huge success, with praise and goodwill lavished on the Italian designer. Caroline Kennedy, a fundraiser for the charity Fund for Public Schools, called Armani "an example to all of us that even in difficult times we must continue to look at the future for hope and inspiration and let our children know that we are determined to help them build a better world". A well-placed source told me that night, off the record, that Wintour had been key in steering the plan.

So you see, Wintour does have some experience of diplomacy.

Wintour as an American ambassador would undoubtedly raise eyebrows. Leaving aside sniffiness about the inherent unseriousness of a woman who works in the fashion industry (which I find rather irritating, funnily enough), her decision last year to run a glowing 3,000-word profile of Syria's Asma al-Assad in US Vogue puts a serious question mark against her political judgment. But Wintour is generally acknowledged as whipsmart and extremely hard-working. She is enormously charismatic, a born networker, and a formidable fundraiser, as shown by the impressive $500,000 she raised for Barack Obama's reelection campaign.

Recent occupants of the US ambassdor's residence in London have included a retired investment banker and a retired car dealership owner. Is a career as one of the biggest global players in an industry estimated to be worth $900bn to the world economy really so inferior and shallow by comparison?

Buying online may be efficient, but where's the joy in that? Our writers choose their favourite local bookshops, butchers and boutiques for everything you need for Christmas… and beyond.

Add your tips to the Guardian's local shopping map

AG Hendy & Co Home Store, Hastings

My friend Alastair drove all his social circle crazy for years by constantly dragging us to car-boot sales and charity shops every weekend. He'd bag all the best bits, while we looked on sulkily. The stuff he collected was piled up in attics, spare rooms and garages until, finally, it had somewhere to go. Hendy's Home Store features everything from vintage crockery to Romanian felt slippers. It would be harder to leave the place without a pile of perfect gifts than with them. Deborah Orr
AG Hendy & Co Home Store, 36 High Street, Hastings, East Sussex; homestore-hastings.co.uk

Ritchie's of Rothesay, Isle of Bute

The recession and mainland supermarkets have made life hard for shopkeepers on the Isle of Bute. Wondrously, those that survive include Ritchie's, which has smoked haddock and salmon here since 1888, and Macqueens (scottish-island-quality-meats.com), a traditional butcher specialising in Bute beef and lamb. Our local butcher in London, Godfreys at Highbury Barn, is, of course, without peer. Ian Jack
Ritchie's of Rothesay, 111 Montague Street, Rothesay, Isle of Bute; ritchiessmokedsalmon.co.uk

Raves From The Grave, Frome

A good rule of thumb for record-buyers and house-hunters of a certain age: to gauge the worth of a town's record shop, see if they've a section devoted to the trailblazing art-rock band Pere Ubu. In 2009, I ran the test here and instantly decided to move to Frome. The floor-to-ceiling stock includes vinyl, new and used; the staff know their stuff; and they sell Toy Story DVDs and cater to my six-year-old son's love of Kraftwerk. While other record shops shut down, they've just opened a new branch, in Bath. Spotify? Schmotify! John Harris

The Antique Shop, Kirkcudbright

Lime green art deco shot glasses, lacy Victorian nightdresses and 1930s satin pyjamas, Downton-style bling (in proper velvet boxes), elbow-length gloves – you can pick up all sorts of beautiful gifts in the Antique Shop by the harbour in Kircudbright. Even if you walk out empty-handed, it's still a pleasant way to while away an hour. Decent price tags, too. For edible treats, make for Coco in Edinburgh for triple-dipped kirsch cherries or a "tattoo" selection box decorated with 1920s-style lucky dice, tigers and anchors. Sweet. Liese Spencer
The Antique Shop, 67 Saint Mary Street, Kirkcudbright; 01557 332400.

Much Ado Books, Alfriston

For bibliophile walkers, this is a place of pilgrimage. On the South Downs walk, it's as warm and serene as the Downs are cold and wild, with an eclectic stock including shelves of first novels, everything you ever wanted to know about those local celebs the Bloomsbury Group, and stashes of notebooks with reclaimed picture plates as covers. Comfy chairs provide a reading rest for weary feet. The only problem is resisting the temptation to overload your rucksack on exit. Claire Armistead

The Idler Academy, London

This is not just a brilliant bookshop with a fantastic selection of old and new books. It's a brilliant bookshop that offers near nightly courses on everything from bridge to tantra to ukulele, weekly author events and a delicious cafe. On any afternoon you'll find customers of all ages sitting on comfy benches, idly eating coffee cake while lazily reading a book or three. Hadley Freeman

Bluejacket Workshop, Morston

I love this shop. It's a showroom for a collective of local artists, but nothing like as bad as that sounds. It's full of beautiful handmade or restored rugs, furniture, knitwear, ceramics, jewellery and toys. There's a workshop proper adjoining it, so you can look through and wish you could create something lovely, too. When I grow up, I'm going to buy everything there. Lucy Mangan

Washingpool, Bridport

We're blessed with outstanding farm shops here on the Devon/Dorset border. Just outside Bridport is Washingpool, a favourite since I arrived here 15 years ago – they've been growing their own veg for two generations. Heading west on the A35 is Felicity's, for rare-breed pork; 10 miles on is Millers, always with something new on the go; then head to Ottery St Mary, to Joshua's, with its fabulous little orchard of cordoned apples and pears. Fantastic healthfood shop Ganesha, in Honiton, is great for organic grains and pulses (and chocolate!). Hugh Fearnley‑Whittingstall

Hanging Ditch, Manchester

Manchester's small but stunning Hanging Ditch is an architect-designed wine shop and bar next to Harvey Nix. Slap in the middle of the city centre, it sells everything from supertuscans (in the tantalising "fine wine" drawers at the bottom of the shelves) to malbec ice wine. Elsewhere, Grape & Grind in Bristol is a brilliant wine shop with all kinds of interesting, off-the-wall bottles you simply won't find in a supermarket. Fiona Beckett

Gay's The Word, London

This legendary bookshop opened in 1979 and is still a distinctive, exciting place, stocking an ever-changing blend of fiction and non-fiction – perfect for that unexpected novel or history book that could not be chanced on browsing the web. Jonathan Jones

OK Comics, Leeds

Stumbling across OK Comics in Leeds as a student was a revelation: I had no idea that there was this incredible world where grown-ups drew cartoons and other grown-ups read them and took them seriously. This was where I discovered Jeffrey Brown, Marjane Satrapi, Charles Burns. Tucked away in a beautiful Victorian arcade, with sofas for reading on, author signings, drink and draw events, and even a free lending library. Becky Barnicoat

Mrs Jones, Holt, Norfolk

Forget Paris, Milan, New York or London. Holt in north Norfolk is my favourite town to shop in the whole world. It has the independent Holt Bookshop, a very superior pretty-things-for-the-house shop, Nixey and Godfrey, as well as top-notch fishmongers, butchers and a 341-year-old department store, Bakers & Larners. Not only that, but it has two outstanding clothes stores: the quirky Old Town and – my favourite – Mrs Jones. Vanessa Bruno jersey pieces, See by Chloé tailoring, Equipment silk blouses, J Brand jeans and Anya Hindmarch bags: the stock is nicely judged at the aspirational-but-not-ridiculous end of the market. The owner knows when to hover and chat, and when to leave you alone (so rare), there is a little box of toys in the changing room for kids, and everything I've bought from here has turned out to be a keeper. Who needs Bond Street? Jess Cartner-Morley

Willow & Stone, Falmouth

Browsing here transports me into my fantasy life. While inside, I imagine that, rather than surrounded by mess and plastic toys, I live a life in which my children sit quietly at the table making tasteful cut-out woodland animals, where organic soaps sit tidily in ceramic dishes in the bathroom, while next door my husband sets a fire with a tasteful, clay-coloured kindling bucket at his side. They have oak wellington racks and associated accessories for a boot room (oh, to have a boot room!) and pretty little bobbins of vintage-style ribbons (I can't even sew). Yes, it's full of aspirational nonsense, but, hell, there's nothing wrong with a little dream once in a while. Merope Mills

Rye Books, London

I just looked on the website of my favourite independent bookseller and it said, "TONIGHT: all your birding questions answered." This distills the purpose of a trusted bibliotaph – their enthusiasms must be much broader than your own; that way, you will always find something to extend you. They're also quite keen on cake, so may extend you in another direction, if that's your thing. Zoe Williams

Borderline, Brighton

Brighton is lucky in that it's packed with independent record shops. Earlier this year, the iconic Rounder closed its doors after 46 years – it named tax avoidance by big online retailers among the reasons – but that still leaves almost a dozen within walking distance of where I'm typing this: secondhand shops, specialist shops including the wonderful vinyl-only Record Album, knowledgable indie retailers such as Resident. My favourite is Borderline in North Laine, which has psychedelic posters on the walls, an intelligently-compiled stock of everything from jazz and world music to krautrock and punk, lots of CDs for a fiver and beautiful, spendy vinyl reissues that represent a clear and present danger to my ongoing ability to pay my mortgage. I recently walked past on a wet Wednesday morning and discovered them gamely trying to engage passing custom by playing the Blues Magoos' awesome, acid-soaked 1966 cover of Tobacco Road at deafening volume. These people are unequivocally the kind you want running a record shop. Alexis Petridis

Palas Print, Caernarfon

Caernarfon in the rain can be a challenging prospect, and it does rain a lot in this bit of north Wales. But if you ever want to take shelter in one of Britain's best independent bookshops, step inside. Run by Eirian James and Selwyn Jones, it brilliantly combines English- and Welsh-language books, reflecting an area where more than half the population has Welsh as its first language. It stocks a lot of fiction by Welsh writers working in English, but, unlike some bookshops, doesn't give it the patronising label "local books". It puts it on the general fiction shelf. "So Owen Sheers has to battle it out with Carol Shields," James says. It is also strong in poetry (in both languages) and Welsh history. It turned 10 this year, and is a great place to hang out, rain or shine. Stephen Moss

HE Harrington, Broadstairs

Rumoured to be the inspiration for the famous "Four Candles" sketch (Ronnie Corbett had a house on the seafront), Harrington's is the hardware store of your – oh, OK, my – dreams: a million tiny drawers; Jim and Henry, the two senior brothers who own it, resplendent in brown coats; and what appears to be a warren as large as Gringotts Wizarding Bank by way of back shop. It's what Labour And Wait in London pretends to be, and at a fraction of the price: bottle brushes, Brown Betty teapots, whisks, cookie cutters, Mason Cash brown bakeware bowls… A wonderful, thriving little timewarp. Marina O'Loughlin

R Garcia & Sons, London

This Spanish deli is where I go for fresh padrón peppers, the best manchego money can buy and the aroma of cured pork, which is the smell of Spain. Yotam Ottolenghi

Ampthill Antiques Emporium, Bedfordshire

Alongside this Victorian department store, over three floors, there's a yard full of garden and architectural antiques. From wrought-iron chairs to statues, plus vintage tools, you're bound to find something for a horticultural friend. Jane Perrone

World of Bears, Taunton

Tucked down a side street in this market town is an extraordinary toy shop dedicated entirely to teddy bears. If, like me, you have a child who is crazy for soft toys, then even entering can be dangerous. These are not all inexpensive bears: some are made by the ursine world's most exclusive names, including Steiff. Handle with care. World of Bears stocks more than 18,000 altogether and has three levels where children – and adult collectors – can spend hours browsing, picking up and hugging. Harriet Green

RE, Northumberland

An old-fashioned curiosity shop that almost single-handedly invented shabby chic, RE is housed in a small converted workshop in Corbridge. Known for its quirky homewares, it is the place to go for biblical plates, rusty signs, vintage brandy glasses – and everything else besides. Hannah Booth

'This is a silhouette that actually looks better on real women than it does on the catwalk'

Fashion, in its pure catwalk form, is the art of exaggerating for effect. It takes the concept of a woman walking through a room and pushes every element of that to its extreme. The women are as tall, and their waists as small, as possible. Their shoes are shockingly high, and yet they walk dizzyingly fast. Normal facial expressions and body shapes are eschewed in favour of sullen glares and cartoonish hip thrusts. If skirts are short, they will be minuscule; if they are long, they will hit the floor. If the message is sheer, there will probably be full nipple exposure; if it is androgyny, there will be brogues and slicked‑back hair.

But once it spills into the real world, fashion finds its level. It has to. No matter how beautiful an outfit might be on the catwalk, if nobody wears it, it's not fashion. Catwalk fashion tends to glorify the very slender or very full skirt shapes – a pencil, or a cinched full skirt. Both of these shapes, however, lose their lustre when transferred from the catwalk silhouette on to us norms. A pencil skirt? More like a crayon stub. A full skirt? Looks good in the morning, when you cinch that waist in tight, but when you loosen your belt a few notches after Pret's ham and festive chutney artisan sandwich, the drama of the silhouette gets a little lost.

This is where the fit-and-flare shape comes in. This is a silhouette that actually looks better on real women than it does on the catwalk. On a catwalk model, it's a baggy pencil skirt; on a real person, it's a pencil skirt that has finished work and is headed for cocktails. This is a skirt that makes a virtue of having hips and even a tummy – the very attributes that derail most shapes on the journey to our real‑life wardrobes.

For this reason, the fit-and-flare, which had a relatively low catwalk profile, has been the sleeper hit of the season. This is the skirt equivalent of the surprise word-of-mouth bestseller. No advance publicity, just happy customers. Too much fashion comes with "do not try this at home" in the small print; this, happily, is the exception that proves the rule.

• Jess wears jumper, £280, by Equipment, from my-wardrobe.com. Skirt, £607.50, by Peter Pilotto, from Liberty. Heels, £59.99, by Zara.

Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson at danirichardson.co.uk.

Jess Cartner-Morley explains how not to look like a six-year-old being taken to The Nutcracker

Get it right and the high-necked dress is a modern party hit

Hypothetical question: if you were wearing a look you thought was working but had, in fact, become old-fashioned and borderline embarrassing, would you want me to tell you? I mean, I'm hoping you'd rather hear it from me than wait until people started rolling their eyes behind your back, right?

OK, maybe it's not so hypothetical. I'm talking about your breasts. Not your nipples, but the 12A-rated part – cleavage, decolletage, whatever you want to call it – that you get out for parties. Oh yes you do. All British women do. The smell of Elnett and the tremulous wobble of underwired bosom? Why, it is as redolent of the festive season as mince pies and mulled wine.

There are sound practical reasons for maximising one's assets in this way. The delineation between the neckline you wear for work and the one you wear for fun is something everyone understands, so nothing projects "off-duty" like a lower neckline. And we all know the style adage, that you should show legs or cleavage but never both. Faced with this stark choice, most women feel more confident about a low neckline than a high hemline.

But here's the thing: a dress with a collarbone-height neckline is more modern; the boobs-out approach to party dressing is tired. It's a bit office party, and not very chic.

There, I've said it. But to make myself more unpopular, I am duty bound to point out that the high-necked party dress comes with issues of its own. We are aiming for modern and understated, not twee or prissy. Best to opt for sleeveless or long sleeves, either of which are more sophisticated than short sleeves.

If the skirt is full, it needs to be short and sharp. Flapper silhouettes or slinky cheongsam shapes are good for adding sophistication. Velvet and Peter Pan collars should be handled with care if your surname is not Chung. Get the details right and the high-necked frock is a modern party update. But get them wrong and you risk looking like a seven-year-old being taken to The Nutcracker. Which is just about the only thing worse than looking out of date and a bit of a slapper.

• Jess wears dress, £345, by DKNY, from fenwick.co.uk. Heels, £59.99, zara.com. Tights, Jess's own.

Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Dani Richardson at danirichardson.co.uk

From the elegant young Obamas to the jazzy Mary Berry – and some dazzling trendsetters in between. The G2 fashion team present their style winners of the year

Ben Whishaw as Q

It was a total stroke of genius casting Ben Whishaw as Q in Skyfall, and thus bringing a modern spin to the tech-geek role. The specs, cord jacket and anorak worn by Whishaw in a scene with Daniel Craig's Bond, shot at the National Gallery in London, were the perfect mix of east-London-cool-meets-Burberry. Meanwhile, for scenes where Whishaw is manning various hi-tech devices, he sports a brilliant piece of knitwear: a camel-fronted zip cardigan with contrast burgundy and navy trim. At first, said cardigan was thought to be of Marni or Balenciaga origin but is, in fact, the always marvellous Dries van Noten. And his hair? Monumental. SC

Malia and Sasha Obama

If Michelle Obama's style was the fashion story of Obama's first term, the evolving fashion sense of their daughters looks set to be the style story that defines his second. "The Obama girls might be the fashion news tonight – full skirts, bright colour, cute" tweeted Cathy Horyn, fashion editor of the New York Times, as they family took to the stage in Chicago in November. What makes 14-year-old Malia and 11-year-old Sasha compelling is the narrative arc we get to watch as they begin to express themselves in clothes. There is a simple all-American elegance that is recognisably their mothers' influence, but Malia favours electric blue (especially on the campaign trail – smart girl) while Sasha loves an abstract pattern. JCM

Gwyneth Paltrow

Jonathan Franzen recently wrote in the New Yorker that Edith Wharton persuades us to invest in what happens to her female characters not by making them likable or deserving, but by convincing us of the strength of their desire. We are won over more by desire than moral goodness. This is how Paltrow has risen from anodyne actor to pop cultural Marmite. She fascinates not by being lovable but because we can see how badly she wants success and how hard she works for it: the Tracy Anderson workouts, the backstage Instagrams, the fiercely minimalist wardrobe. What thematic link unites the white Tom Ford Oscar cape, the sculptural Stella Grammys gown, and the silver Prada Met Ball dress? Ambition. JCM

K Stew and R Patz

Forget Stewart's relationship infidelity, here are a pair of New Generation A-listers who, whether seen together or apart, bring a bit of modern bite to the Hollywood fashion conveyor belt. She's unpredictable, veering from tricky short dresses to long cocktail frocks and biker jackets (plus snarl), while he's all non-boring suits or artfully scruffed up, perhaps with a dash of Kenzo. One of their joint triumphs this year, though, was a Twilight promo gig with K Stew flashing knickerline, and vamping it up with lace peepholes in a beigey strapless Zuhair Murad gown, while R Patz had slipped himself into a emerald green Gucci two-button suit. Utterly scorching. SC

Marc Jacobs

Not content with being one of fashion's most influential designers, Jacobs is also a dresser with proper snap. One of the most analysed looks of the year is surely his Met Ball party piece. Having established that the skirt or polo shirt dress is becoming to Jacobs what high-collared shirts are to Karl Lagerfeld, the designer chose a see-through lace polo-shirt-dress by Comme des Garçons to make his red-carpet statement. Showing off white boxers and sculpted pecs, Marc further threw out the rule book by accessorising with a clutch and sparkly panto shoes. In short, it's Jacobs having a Cher moment, which is amazing, obviously. SC

Azealia Banks

Banks stormed on to the music scene at the end of 2011, with her hit 212, and went on in 2012 to hone her fashion look. She did it by doing exactly what she wanted. Banks is a style natural – sometimes elegant in a LBD at the Met Ball, or in a pair of jelly shoes and scalloped sequin dress at the Serpentine garden party. While she performed in the hipster uniform of high-waisted shorts and flatforms– in fact, she had a big part to play in this becoming a hipster look – her dalliance with mermaid style is the runaway highlight. Hosting a party in London in October – attended by BFF Cara Delevingne – Banks wore a conch-shell top and fishtail skirt. The message: why the hell not? LC

Jessica Ennis

If 2011 was the year of Pippa's bottom, then 2012 was the year of Jess's abs. Last year, we had a collective perv over a backside honed in the pilates classes of Chelsea, whose moment of glory came walking very slowly and occasionally bending over to carry someone else's dress. This year, we were transfixed by a magnificent musculature that represents talent, years of dedicated hard work and nerves of steel. This is progress, people! And if you doubt for a moment that those Stella McCartney-designed knickers have influenced fashion at all in 2012, then you clearly haven't been in Topshop lately, where the Olympic legacy is apparent in an array of podium-worthy hotpants. JCM

Mary Berry

In a year where older models most definitely had a moment, Mary Berry – the 77-year-old anti-soggy bottom judge on The Great British Bake Off – became an unlikely style icon. Always the cheeriest of judges – she does love a bright blazer – Berry's fashion stock rose, like a style soufflé, in September when she appeared in a jazzy bomber jacket printed with hothouse flowers. Originally from Zara, it fed into the bomber-jacket trend and would have looked at home on a teenager in Dalston. As such, it only confirmed what we already knew – oldies really were the goodies in 2012. LC

Cara Delevingne

When Grazia calls a model cooler than Kate Moss , you know they have made an impact. Such is the case with Cara Delevingne – named model of the year at the British fashion awards in November – that the 20-year-old has become the face of 2012. With catwalk moments from Burberry to Victoria's Secret (both officially Big Deals), it's her off-runway antics that have scored her a spot on this list. Although her style is pretty typical model on a day off – Converse and beanie, say – she has become known for her love of onesies on Twitter, while her shimmering minidress and bedhead hair at the British fashion awards felt fresh. Plus, those eyebrows deserve an entry all on their own. She might not be cooler than Kate yet, but she's on the way. LC

Claire Danes

Carrie Mathison's sartorial disposition is perhaps the last thing on anyone's mind during a tense episode of Homeland. And yet Claire Danes brings to the screen the kind of hair that not only acts as a barometer of how fraught the current situation is but also, despite myriad stressed hands-run-through-it moments, always looks artfully sublime. Carrie also digs a trouser suit with a boot-cut finish. You may scoff but this is looking increasingly fashion forward. See the Resort 2013 collections of power trendsetters: Céline, Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs. And what other TV heroine has managed to blur the lines between hipster and CIA agent via the medium of a black beanie hat? Pretty much no one. Ever. SC

The look for this Christmas is the little black jumpsuit. Jess Cartner-Morley picks out the best of the bunch

Arrival of indigenous edition of fashion's most famous glossy magazine has become a badge of sophistication

Here's a simple test of the economic development and consumer sophistication of a nation: visit a newsstand, and look for a copy of Vogue. The arrival of an indigenous edition of fashion's most famous glossy magazine has become a barometer of the emergence of an affluent middle class, and a siren call to a luxury industry looking for new markets.

Launches in Thailand and Ukraine next year will bring the number of international Vogues to 21. Until the 1960s, there were only five editions of Vogue: in the US, UK, France, Italy and Australia. In the past 40 years, economic growth around the globe has been tracked by the arrival of Vogue editors: Russia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have had their own Vogues since the 1990s, while the first decade of the 21st century saw launches in China and India, among others. The launch of Turkish Vogue two years ago indicated the country's emergence as a luxury market.

Because the printing cost of a copy of Vogue is much higher than the cover price, advertising is crucial. For this reason, the appetite of the luxury industry to reach consumers in a country is what brings Vogue to the newsstand. As Condé Nast's chairman, Jonathan Newhouse, said when announcing the 2013 launch of a Kiev-based edition of his magazine: "The Ukraine is ready for Vogue … Kiev is booming, and there is a strong market demand for luxury products and the experience Vogue can offer the reader."

But the arrival of Vogue has also become a badge of sophistication for a country. The desire among consumers for a Vogue specific to that country, rather than imported editions, grows as a middle class gains confidence. The lofty, imperial decrees of a magazine printed in a distant western capital no longer satisfy women secure in their own ideals of style and beauty and looking for publications which reflect these.

When Turkish Vogue launched in 2010, the 562-page debut issue boasted 252 pages of advertising including Dior, Escada and D&G and the masthead featured Mary Fellowes, formerly of British Vogue – but at the Paris launch party, the editor in chief chose a dress by Turkish designer Hakaan Yildirim. Vogue Thailand recently provided a teaser cover image of its debut cover, featuring the Thai model Si Tanwiboon, who has walked in Paris fashion week shows including Jean Paul Gaultier and Louis Vuitton.

Each edition of Vogue takes on something of the character of that country. Japanese Vogue is eccentric and edgy, reflecting the lively fashion cultures of Tokyo. Russian Vogue is edited by Victoria Davydova, whose graduate thesis was on the financial structure of the beauty industry; the models rarely smile.

Indian Vogue has had Indian models on every cover in 2012, but this is unusual. China had the Beijing-born model Liu Wen on three consecutive September issues, but has also featured the US models Arizona Muse and Karlie Kloss in 2012. Spanish Vogue's cover models this year included Penélope Cruz, but also Kate Moss dressed as a matador. Vogue Brazil most often features Brazilian models, in particular Gisele Bündchen, but in Korean Vogue a run of blond models has included Britain's Cara Delevingne, the Dutch Lara Stone and the American Carolyn Murphy.

Japanese Vogue aroused controversy when a video of a shoot with the US model Crystal Renn appeared to show her temples being pulled back to give her eyes a more Japanese appearance. The magazine insisted the technique is commonly used to define bone structure on camera, and was not intended to alter ethnicity.

It's important to get your Christmas party look right – and this year that is a black jumpsuit

Funny thing about human nature, how we feel the need to locate ourselves at the centre of every story, even when it is patently not about us. Like when something momentous and out of the blue happens in the news, and you have a conversation about it, and someone mentions that they were just getting out of the bath when they saw it on the TV news. And then someone else pitches in that they heard it when they switched on the car radio after the school run. This information is irrelevant, but it feels important to the person telling you. And there's nothing wrong with this, nothing at all – it comes from an impulse to engage with the world, to arrange our thoughts in a way that makes some order out of the crazy human experience. Although, if we're honest, we're only pretending to be interested in other people's version of the crazy human experience. We're all too busy obsessing over our own.

Fashion provides us with a way to feel part of things. We get to dress up and get on stage, play walk-on parts in the zeitgeist. Which brings us to Christmas. Whatever you think the story of Christmas is really about, you'd struggle to make a case for it being all about you. And yet the impulse to look Christmassy is quite extraordinarily strong. How else to explain the survival of the cracker paper hat?

But cracker hats can be worn only in front of people who regularly see you at your worst – your family and your office colleagues, in other words. Besides, during this front-of-house segment of the festive season before you retire to the sofa with the biscuit tin you need to look not only dressed for Christmas, but dressed for 2012. Which is why getting your Christmas party look right matters. And this year, the Christmas party look is a black jumpsuit.

The point of wearing a one-hit outfit – a dress, or a jumpsuit, rather than separates – is it shows you to be jumping two-footed into the evening, which is the only way to go with Christmas parties. As for why to choose a jumpsuit, over a dress: a jumpsuit is news, in a way that a dress can't be. And if there are headlines to be made, surely you want them to be about you?

• Jess wears jumpsuit, £39.99, zara.com. Leopard heels, £119, kurtgeiger.com.
Hair and makeup: Tracy Quinn. Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson

Thumbs up for Hogan wedge trainers and Tom Dixon's sleek nutcracker; thumbs down for Advent calendars and retro sherry

Going up

'December will be magic' This year, we're switching festive kitchen dancing from Mariah leg-kicks to vintage Kate Bush ethereal swooshing.

Burberry hound sweater Santa, are you listening? We really have been very, very good.

Katie Grand for Hogan The wedge trainers in the new collection are, frankly, awesome. Bookmark for your January payday treat.

Fancy things that are useful Tom Dixon's cast-iron nutcracker is a prize example. It's gold, black, sleek, £45, and cracks a walnut to perfection.

St Tropez everyday moisturiser A lifeline to looking a lot less terrible than we otherwise would right now.

GOING DOWN

Advent calendars They're just empty windows where the chocolate used to be.

Downton going off-message at Christmas A Christmas Day special based around summer in the Highlands? Where's the festive cheer in that?

Loungewear Fancy pyjamas – burgundy M&S for the chaps; paisley Topshop for the ladies – are the only Elf-watching uniform this Christmas Eve.

Sherry One retro step too far. Let's stick with kir royales, shall we? Cheers!

Jess Cartner-Morley pulls a selection of gowns off the rails from the Kiera Knightley to the Pixie Geldof look

'The challenge is to embrace the new year spirit without showing an unseemly amount of enthusiasm'

It has become terribly uncool to care about New Year's Eve. The in thing, these days, is to declare that you've never liked it, with sighs and references to the price of taxis, the tricky social diplomacy involved in managing who wants to be with whom at midnight, the cold, etc. There is a subtext, as there always is, which is about NYE having become what New Yorkers call a bridge-and-tunnel night out – in other words, one that brings out the uncool suburban crowd rather than the hipster regulars.

But for anyone who likes dressing up, the symbolism is just too good to resist. Out with the old, in with the new: new year is an occasion that embraces what fashion is all about. It would be rude not to mark the night with a sartorial flourish, even if that means your best pyjamas for champagne in front of the telly. But, pyjamas only being an option in front of a very select guest list, the challenge is how to embrace the new year spirit without showing an unseemly amount of enthusiasm, seeing as how you don't really care, and all.

Which is where the long dress comes in. Counterintuitive, I know, but bear with me. Nothing says Big Occasion like a floor-length dress, and yet it doesn't look show-offy or desperate in the way a little sequinned number can. Floor-length sets an old-fashioned, faintly poignant mood, like a black and white movie. The floor-length dress – a "gown" in fashion parlance – was facing extinction in the real world until recently, and seemed destined to be preserved only in the red carpet zoo. But the gown is making a last-gasp comeback, as a new generation discovers the joys of not having to worry about correct hosiery opacity, or ladders, or cankles. At the British Fashion Awards this year, I was struck by the fact that the cool kids were in floor-length and the middle-aged contingent were in knee-length.

Naturally, the floor-length dress is not a one-size-fits-all NYE option. It's not going to work if you are going to Trafalgar Square, or midnight sledging, or to a dirty rave in a basement. But, as we've already established, you are much too cool for any of that, right?

• Black beaded dress, £199, Hobbs Invitation from John Lewis, www.johnlewis.com.

Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Tracey Quinn.

Not even Cheryl Cole looks good in a giant babygrow

Fashion, as Coco said, does not happen in a vacuum but reflects the times in which we live. In other words: you can't blame fashion for the onesie. In fact, fashion holds you responsible. Answer me this: have you ever seen Anna Wintour hit the New York Fashion Week front row in a fleecy all-in-one? You have not. Has a onesie yet scored the cover of Vogue? Negative. There are many, many absurd trends – shoes with 7in heels, say, or swimsuits with keyhole cutouts – that can be traced back to the catwalk, but the onesie is not a look for which the fashion powers-that-be can be held responsible.

The onesie has been the runaway hit of 2012. All-in-ones make up a sturdy 15% of all Marks & Spencer's nightwear sales. More alarmingly, they are being worn in public, and not only by the loopier creatures of the scripted-reality zoo, but by people who really should know better. Brad Pitt, who is married to one of the world's most elegant women and has Tom Ford on speed dial, wore a onesie on a family outing in LA. Cheryl Cole wore one to visit the Eiffel Tower. A onesie? In Paris? Cheryl, that's the kind of poor judgment that'll wind up with marriage to… oh.

How on Earth did a society that is obsessed with skinniness and sex fall head over heels for the allure of a giant babygrow? I have a theory: I think it's to do with how we are losing the boundaries between public and private. Lying in bed with insomnia, we tweet about it. Eating breakfast on holiday, we take a photo and Instagram it. Privacy has become a less valuable commodity; after all, oversharing will get you many more followers. A onesie has impact precisely because it is designed to be worn only in private. I don't think it's a coincidence that One Direction, a band who were launched on reality TV and became superstars through social media, were among the first celebrities to go public in onesies.

I am not an anti-onesie fanatic. My six-year-old looks adorable in hers. But. Think of 1957, and you picture Cary Grant in a dinner jacket. Think of 2012, and it's the cast of TOWIE in their onesies. Don't blame me. As I mentioned, this particular sartorial mistake is most definitely not fashion's fault.

See also in fashion

• Anne Hathaway's bondage ballgown.

• The Kardashians collection for Dorothy Perkins.

• Meggings (male leggings, for the blissfully unaware).

In the grim days of early January, as the trees wilt and the tedious detox chats start, comfort and warmth take over your wardrobe in the form of the fluffy jumper from Topshop to Jonathan Saunders

'The difference between a fleece and a rich angora sweater is like the difference between an electric radiator and an open fire'

You buy a cocktail dress for how it looks, but you buy a jumper for how it feels. This is the same kind of instinctive logic that prompts you to use proper punctuation and actual sentences when you're writing a serious work email, but to drop down into LOL territory when writing to a friend. Tailoring, corsetry and Spanx are the capital letters of fashion, in other words. There is an outward-facing, front-of-house you and an off-duty, first-take version.

That there are few joys associated with these early days of January is an excellent reason to grasp what you can with both hands. As the trees wilt and the tedious detox chat starts, the world feels a less lustrous place than it did at the beginning of the 12 days of Christmas. The primacy of comfort and warmth over snazziness and fashion chops as guiding wardrobe principles is a welcome upside.

There is something caveman-like about a hairy jumper. It harks back to clothes as basic survival, rather than as a mark of civilisation. A fine, smooth knit turns wool into a symbol of refinement, showing off the skill and technique involved. A fuzzball knit, on the other hand, looks a little like you've wrapped yourself up in a skein of wool. A hairy jumper not only keeps you warm and cosy, but projects warmth and cosiness. The difference between a serviceable fleece and a rich angora sweater is a little like the difference between an electric radiator and an open fire. Both can keep you warm, but one projects the kind of feelgood warmth that is like adding an extra layer.

Or so it seems, for that first afternoon in a fluffy jumper, when you revel in the luxurious statement cosiness. But within a few hours, the backlash begins. Those irritating flecks find their way into your eyes or mouth. The lapel of your coat acquires a woolly coating that can be shifted only with committed Sellotaping. It's deeply annoying. What, after all, is the point of a feelgood trend when it starts to wind you up? Well, you could argue it is fashion's way of telling you the post-Christmas hibernation period is over and it's time to get out of the fluffy knitwear. Perfectly logical, you see.

• Jess wears jumper, £415, by 3.1 Phillip Lim, from my-wardrobe.com. Trousers, £319, by Tibi, from net-a-porter.com. Courts, £175, russellandbromley.co.uk.
Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Tracey Quinn.

It's the end of the curve. The new season's key look is all about squares, geometric shapes, right angles and lines

Remember that bit at the end of the Da Vinci Code movie, after Tom Hanks has been looking everywhere for the chalice or inverted pyramid or whatever it is that will lead him to the Holy Grail? After all the deciphering cryptograms and fighting people in churches, he finally realises that what he's looking for must be right back where he started his search, because what matters is the shape, and next to the big glass pyramid at the Louvre there's that little inverted glass pyramid, the one that makes a skylight over the underground gift shops, and so the answer was in plain sight in front of him all along.

Well, fashion for the new season is a bit Da Vinci, except the maths isn't so tricky and hoods are totes over. Just like Tom Hanks, I was trying to figure out What It All Means – is the key to a successful new season wardrobe to channel one's inner 1970s groupie (YSL) or planning a look around a surreal fluffy shoe (Céline) or wearing fuchsia top-to-toe (Gucci)? And all along, the answer was right there in front of me. I was going around in circles, and the answer was a square.

Fashion's holy grail right now is to be square. (Literally. We're talking right angles, not geek chic.) The square is the visual link that connects the season's key fashion shows with the advertising campaigns now launching in the glossies and the It bags now flying out of Selfridges. Because it's a shape, rather than a colour, or a decade, or a classic film, it's easy to miss – but once you spot it, the square is everywhere.

Paris fashion week was bookended by catwalk shows designed around squares. It began with Raf Simons' first ready-to-wear show for Dior, which was staged in a giant white cube built for the occasion beside the gold dome of Les Invalides. Inside, the space was divided into a series of interconnecting white rooms, linked by square windows hung with sheer curtains in sugar almond shades. A week later, it ended with Louis Vuitton and a stage set created by French installation artist Daniel Buren, which featured a giant checkerboard catwalk in white and buttercup yellow on which models, in neat pairs, carried handbags in the Vuitton Damier check. And both Dior and Vuitton have reprised the squares from their catwalk shows to star in their multimillion-pound advertising campaigns, dispelling any notion that the geometry was just a piece of set-dressing whimsy. The Vuitton adverts star models in checks, set against checks; for Dior, the square windows of the catwalk tent become an elegant backdrop for the Dior woman to strike her New Look poses.

Here in London, the humble square began to show its style credentials before Christmas, when jumpers with squares on emerged as a surprise competitor to the traditional popularity of the festive jumper. In early December – peak season for a jolly snowflake/reindeer knit – the fashionables were quietly placing orders for Richard Nicoll's latest men's sweaters, which feature a simple square of blue or white on a grey background. (The new Whistles collection features a similar womenswear sweater.)

Windowpane checks are next up for a revival. They were widely admired on the catwalk for Sportmax in Milan, and feature strongly in the latest Topshop Unique collection. (I've got my eye on an extremely nice navy-and-white windowpane skirt-and-tunic co-ord – that's a matching set, do keep up – that should hit the Whistles shopfloor sometime soon.) In my dreams, I'd be accessorising it with this season's best-pedigreed It bag: the Grace Box by Mark Cross, a glorious and defiantly angular mini-trunk currently on sale in Selfridges, which is a direct descendent of the Mark Cross bag carried by Grace Kelly in Rear Window. (Sadly for me, the new bag carries a very 21st-century price tag of £1,280.)

Like the weather, fashion can only be reliably forecast in fortnightly chunks. But sniff the wind, and you will find that the signs point to squares, straight lines and geometric shapes dominating fashion next season as well as this. Sarah Burton's triumphant SS13 McQueen collection was themed on womanhood and female power but eschewed curves for the hexagons of the beehive. Alexander Wang, a designer whose aesthetic is defiantly cleanlined and graphic (check out this season's kneeboots) is about to take over at the storied and influential house of Balenciaga. For now, the learning curve ends here, in straight lines.

Jess Cartner-Morley tries to make your January wardrobe a bit more fun with four top-and-skirt combinations to add a little colour and zest to the bottom of your clothing food chain