From Roger Moore’s yellow all-in-one to George Lazenby’s ruffle-fronted dinner shirt, and Sean Connery’s slim suits, who had the clothes to die for?

‘My understanding of this style is based on the Charlie perfume ads’

Ever noticed how in each decade the fashion clock seems to stop at a certain time of day? In 1950s fashion, it will always be 4pm, in a dress to be worn under an apron as the cakes are brought triumphantly to the tea table. If one is channelling 40s retro, it must be rush hour, to be navigated in a smartly tailored suit as you walk purposefully and vaguely poignantly across a station concourse. Seventies fashion is frozen around midnight, the glare of flash bouncing off shiny fabric and skin with a post-dancefloor glow.

Which is tricky, because we are well into autumn and the 70s are not so much back as still back, having dominated the summer as well. And with the best will in the world, there is a limit to how many real-life looks you can make from a Studio 54 mood board. Even when you look beyond the late-night 70s, what comes to mind are jeans and sun-faded cotton T-shirts, which doesn’t help, what with your late-October diary not being jam-packed with picnics and/or folk festivals.

‘The old-school jumper was there to keep you warm, but the new generation is not content with a backroom role’

Here’s a timely Halloween fashion tip: wear a sweater with a high enough polo neck to hide behind when Craig Revel Horwood gets really scary on Strictly. It’s a bit of a trick-or-treat cop-out, but a wiser investment than a zombie Minion mask, as it’s a statement sweater and so officially an autumn look.

When the statement sweater emerged as a trend a couple of years ago, it was either a normal sweatshirt with something written in French on it, or a normal jumper in a slightly weird colour. So you could wear it in the normal jumper way, over a shirt or under a coat. Then it became all about texture: waffle, sponge, mohair. This winter, it has gone full-on, wear-your-cinema-specs three-dimensional.

The real allure of their dressing is its simplicity – and not pandering to fashion

I am a total sucker for the biggest cliche of them all: reader, I want to dress French.

Last Thursday morning, before it was even light, I was on the Uniqlo website trying to shop the capsule collection by ex-French Vogue editor and all-round front-row institution Carine Roitfeld. Roitfeld, the somewhat unlikely industry pinup who resembles the lovechild of Coco Chanel and Iggy Pop, has recreated her signature French-fashion-editor look (pencil skirts, slim waist-hugging blazers, black sweaters, wide belts, leopardprint coats) at Uniqlo prices. When I flipped my laptop open, the collection had only been on sale a few hours, but already the faux-leather below-the-knee pencil skirt with the eyelet trim that I had been planning on buying was gone.

The museum has rejected the former prime minister’s wardrobe on the grounds that it does not qualify as ‘fashionable dress’. It may have lacked refinement and subtlety, but her clothing was a masterclass in projecting power

And the opposite view: why the V&A were wrong

In a newspaper article in January 1975, Margaret Thatcher described private property as “one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom”. So it seems appropriate that her handbags, suits and necklaces will be sold for cold, hard cash to the highest bidder, rather than being saved for the nation.

Related: V&A rejects offer to showcase Margaret Thatcher's clothing

Related: Margaret Thatcher: her fashion legacy – in pictures

‘The silly coat – seen here in a riot of fluff and fuzz, but also anything sleeveless, collarless, buttonless or in a bright colour – is a surprisingly sensible buy’

I feel so inadequate when people say they put their out-of-season clothes into storage. I don’t, which means my clothes are so squashed together I have to arm-wrestle jackets out of a spaghetti junction of sleeves.

I have tried. Last month, after an hour, my pile for the loft was a bag of bikinis and a kaftan. Other than that, I don’t have many proper summer clothes; I live in Britain, and I’m really not a hot pants person. I wear the same clothes all year in different combinations. So I was staring at my three denim shirts – which I wear in summer as sort-of jackets, in winter under jumpers, and as buttoned-up shirts in autumn and spring – failing to pluck up the courage to put one in the loft. I couldn’t decide. The bag of bikinis didn’t seem worth the faff of the dusty loft ladder, so I just shoved it in the back of the wardrobe.

The price tags in chain stores now make Gucci seem affordable. What’s going on?

In late October, the day after the press preview of the Balmain x H&M collection, some idiot from this paper queried whether the price tags of these bejewelled party dresses and pearl-encrusted jackets were too high for their target high-street customers. “Four hundred pounds is a lot to pay for a dress for which you will probably have to queue from dawn on a cold November morning,” she wrote, archly.

Last week, when those £400 dresses finally went on sale, shoppers from Seoul to Paris camped overnight to pay for them. Outside the Oxford Street store, opportunist traders were reselling the most expensive pieces for three times face value within an hour of them going on sale. On eBay, prices for those dresses are now in four figures.

Despite consistently strong critical response over the past three years, clothing sales are in decline. How can the chain turn its fortunes around?

In the ongoing saga of Marks & Spencer’s financial fortunes, fashion is often said to be the canary in the coalmine. The theory is that the ability of M&S to make the hearts of its core female customer sing – as it did with the pink coat (September 2013) and the suede midiskirt (May 2015) – is a crucial sign of good health for the M&S business as a whole.

The trouble with this theory is that despite consistently strong reviews from fashion critics in the three years since Belinda Earl became style director– and despite, even, the pink coat and the suede midiskirt – clothing sales have now declined for 16 out of the past 17 quarters.

The 2015 Victoria’s Secret show took place in New York on Tuesday night. From the omniscient power of the Kardashians to Rihanna’s absence, what does it tell us about the world in 2015?

Ha ha, only joking. Nothing is the new thin. Have you seen the size of these women? Christ. But, still, three years after the rest of the world tired of the humblebrag, the topline story from the 2015 Victoria’s Secret show has been about what an honour it is to take part. The actor Yolanda Foster, whose daughter Gigi Hadid took part for the first time, hashtagged her backstage Instagrams with “#ProudMommy #Grateful #BucketList”. “Pinch me!” screamed model Bridget Malcolm’s post-runway Instagram. Meanwhile, days earlier, Hadid’s taped tears of joy on getting the job went viral, while Kendall Jenner described getting the nod from VS casting on the day she turned 20 as the best birthday present ever. The tightly controlled social media from this year’s show is too neatly on-message to be an accident. Was talking about how honoured you felt instead of how long you planked for this morning part of the 2015 VS contract?

‘It’s a ridiculous dress, really. But that’s good, because the whole point of a party dress is that you need to reset the dial’

I have this whole theory about the return of the 80s party dress. I reckon that after the financial crisis we look at the fashion of boom eras through a different lens. Where we once saw macho, muscular but fundamentally solid tailoring, we now look at the same years and what springs to mind are clothes for recklessness, ego, giddiness.

Yeah, I know, needs work; I don’t think Thomas Piketty’s got much to worry about just yet. But it’s enough to base a shopping expedition on, right? Because the 80s party dress is where this festive season is at. Those 90s slip dresses are feeling droopy, and the 70s revival is dragging on a bit. What we need is a brassy tequila sunrise of a cocktail dress.

Related: What I wore this week: snazzy coats

The fluffy pom-pom is where it’s at this winter, from Jimmy Choo shoes to Burberry bracelets. But it’s the classic hat that rules this season

There is only one furry accessory that matters right now, and it’s not a backless Gucci loafer. You’ve seen it on the tube, you’ve seen it in every Manhattan paparazzi shot, you’ve seen it in fashionable gift guides. There is no doubt that when future generations prise open the fashion time capsule marked “Winter 2015”, it will contain a beanie hat with a furry pom-pom on top.

‘There is something about showing bare skin that elevates any look’

There are bare legs in winter, and then there are completely doable, non-scary bare legs in winter. On a cold November morning, there are bare legs in the shift-dress-and-slingbacks sense, with a flattering goosebump finish and aching ankle bones when the wind whips. Or there are bare legs in the long-skirt-and-ankle-boots sense, as seen here, which is perfectly comfortable, but still counts as Going Bare Legged.

This is not bare-leggedness in the fully alpha Anna Wintour sense, yet people are still weirdly impressed when only a few inches of skin are on show and it’s not that cold. So take full advantage. There is something about showing bare skin that elevates any look, a rule shown at its logical conclusion in the near-nudity that dominates the red carpet. A short section of bare calf requires no more bravery than pushing the sleeves of your jumper up to the elbows. Feet get cold and thighs get cold, but calves really don’t. Fact. But don’t tell anyone, because then they won’t be impressed any more.

I’ve figured out what Christmas 2015 is about: headphones. This has been staring you in the face for weeks now, by the way. Literally, I mean: there is no 2015 gift guide that does not star a pair of ludicrously expensive headphones as Perfect Gift. Headphones as an accessory, rather than a gadget, began with footballers, who wear the brightly-coloured Beats ones as religiously as nuns wear crucifixes. Because this was quickly picked up by teens, headphones have been the go-to gift for teenagers for several years. Which makes perfect sense, because no one knows what to buy teenagers and no one knows what to talk to them about either, so it’s a gift that kills two birds with one stone.

The difference this year is that headphones, like Taylor Swift and The Hunger Games, have broken out of teen culture and joined the grownups’ table. There are headphones for dad, and headphones for mum. The tan leather Master & Dynamic headphones with their microphone-style silver mesh detailing have a His Master’s Voice aesthetic which is clearly aimed at a man who would never ever wear Beats (too teenage, too footballer), who may have or have had a fashionable beard at some point, a man who still doesn’t wear a suit to work but has recently switched from trainers to brogues. Frends headphones, meanwhile, are delicate and light, with jewellery-slender rose-gold stems and chic black ear pads, and come in a pouch that will tuck into a small handbag, so I’m guessing it’s fair to say those are aimed at women. I’m not going to tell you how much any of these cost as it will only make you cross.

The trick is to look like you came straight from work. Keep your hair ‘stravy’ – and your coat on

It’s a fact of life that once you reach 35 you’d secretly rather chew your arm off than go out after work on a Monday or Tuesday, when you could be at home watching London Spy or Capital on the telly. But for the month before Christmas, going out on a school night becomes unavoidable. However, this does not have to mean lugging to work a hanging bag, hair straighteners and six alternative pairs of earrings, which you then force your poor colleagues to help you decide between. That whole changing-in-the-ladies scene is a bit analogue. The boundaries between work and home life are so blurred, what with answering work emails all evening and liking your colleague’s snaps of her kids at the weekend, that switching to a different look at 6pm feels old-fashioned. Nine-to-nine dressing – a sharp outfit you can wear to work and dress up by adding heels and fluffing up your hair – is the way to go. Victoria Beckham’s snappy tuxedo suit at the British Fashion Awards (BFAs) made all the frilly frocks look a bit bridge-and-tunnel for a Monday night.

The Ab Fab duo’s appearance at Stella McCartney’s Christmas party was a sign that fashion has finally found its funny bone

Fashion is in the middle of a tyre-squeakingly radical change of direction, and we’re not talking about hemlines. With the release of Zoolander 2 just two months away and an Absolutely Fabulous movie in the pipeline, 2016 is all set to be the year fashion gets funny. An industry that has always taken itself, I think it’s fair to say, just a teeny weeny bit too seriously, is finally in on the joke.

Stella McCartney was way ahead of the curve on this one. She made a cameo appearance in Ab Fab back in 2012, and has made the comic turns at her Bruton Street store’s Christmas lighting-up do a festive tradition for almost a decade. Peter Kay, Catherine Tate and Barry Humphries have all done the honours in the past. For 2015, she enlisted Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, the very on-trend best friends with whom she shared the British Fashion Awards stage earlier in the week, to flick the switch that lights up the shopfront with neon Santas. Cue a fashwan-style backhanded compliment about how McCartney’s win at the British Fashion Awards on Monday, for brand of the year, “came out of nowhere”.

‘An almost ankle-length coat is the red-carpet gown to the knee-length coat’s cocktail dress’

I always thought you had to be tall, dark and handsome to pull off a long coat. Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club, knee-tremblingly moody in that enormous grey coat, dark hair falling in his face. Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock. That sort of thing.

Being neither tall nor dark nor handsome, I have always favoured coats which finish at the knee, or just above, feeling I lack the requisite swagger for anything longer. But I’ve changed my mind, for skirt-related reasons. For the first time ever, you see, I’ve got properly into midi-length skirts. These fitted into my wardrobe surprisingly seamlessly – they work with ankle boots or trainers; they look good with a fitted shirt or a neat jumper – until the weather got cold and I put my coat on. A knee-length coat over a longer skirt does not work at all. I looked like Downton’s Mrs Patmore. It was time for a longer coat.

Related: What I wore this week: an 80s party dress

Wearing sunglasses after early September used to be – how to put this delicately? – a massive red flag of wankerdom. A simple pair of Ray-Bans on a bright December day and you might as well have stepped out of your Lamborghini in your mink coat chowing down on foie gras, for the reaction you’d get. It was, frankly, non-U. The only person who could pull it off was Anna Wintour.

What changed? Well, for a start, our social graces went so far out of the window as to make the wearing or not wearing of sunglasses out of season an irrelevance. At a point in time when plenty of perfectly nice people seem to consider it acceptable to conduct an entire conversation with another human being without glancing up from their phone screen to make eye contact, it can definitely be argued that getting your knickers in a twist about the wearing of shades in winter seems about as relevant as insisting on the use of grape scissors. The world is going to hell in a handcart, my friends. With all due respect, I think that frothing at the mouth with righteous outrage about a pair of shades might be missing the point.

Taking over the famed Cinecittà film studios, catwalk show packed an extra emotional charge

The grand scale of theatrical ambition for Chanel’s Paris-Rome event was evident from Karl Lagerfeld’s choice of venue. Rome’s Cinecittà, a film set the size of the Vatican City, is where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fell in love on the set of Cleopatra, the movie that almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Federico Fellini, who filmed La Dolce Vita there, called it the “temple of dreams”.

Lagerfeld is one of modern popular culture’s great storytellers. He has created at Chanel a seductive and vivid fantasy world to which the world’s consumers are so in thrall that the brand is estimated to be worth $7bn (£4.7bn).

Related: Eyewitness: Coco Chanel in Paris, 1962

This is it – the dress in which to make an entrance, but not a spectacle of yourself

What I want to say this week is simple. Stop what you’re doing, now, and go and buy this dress. I don’t often ask this of you, so you know I mean it. And I know I mean it, because as part of my lifelong quest for Party Dresses In Which To Make An Entrance But Not A Spectacle, the day after this shot was taken, I took a detour to Topshop at Oxford Circus to bag one.

And if you won’t take this recommendation from me, take it from Hillary Clinton. She can’t vouch for this Topshop number, I don’t think, but she’s been rocking the cold-shoulder look since 1993, and she recently told Lena Dunham that her version of the dress – by Donna Karan, the originator of the style – was “one of my favourite dresses”. The cold shoulder (it’s a real trend name; Google it if you think I make this stuff up) is having a revival this season partly due to all the fond reminiscing about it when news broke earlier this year that the Donna Karan International line was closing. Karan came up with the style as the ultimate grownup party dress because she had noticed shoulders were one body part that got neither fat nor wrinkly as women got older. The unexpected flesh hit of bare shoulders in a covered-up dress feels just the right balance of racy and graceful. And a dollop of body cream is a level of party prep I can do business with. It works.

Related: What I wore this week: how to flash a bit of winter leg

Everyone loves Christmas parties! Except if you don’t like making small-talk with your colleagues, paying for taxis or Christmas in general. Here are five ways to negotiate the dreaded ’do...

The weather, the traffic, Ocado delivery slots, Strictly: the well-worn paths of party chat can get a little hard going at this time of year. But master the art of Conversation Dressing and you’ll never again be short of small talk.