'A well-judged flourish adds a wink to your outfit'
Adding a ruffle to an outfit is like tying a ribbon around a box: it transforms your perception of what lies beneath. Effort has been invested into making this package appealing. To create a ruffle, you need to use more fabric than is strictly necessary, and that's the whole point. A ruffle is anti-utilitarian, which is why it is popular on the red carpet, where women are essentially gift-wrapped.
But the very attributes that make ruffles perfect for the red carpet make them tricky to wear in real life. Much of current style philosophy revolves around the virtues of sleekness and sharpness as a metaphor for modernity. Step back a few stilettoed paces from the seasonal call-and-response of trends, and the overall picture shows an increasing emphasis, over the past five years, on clean lines, sharp edges.
A thick, shiny back zip travelling straight as a die from neck to knee is the high street's go-to detail in the quest to modernise the day dress. The scoop neck has all but disappeared in favour of the clean, compass-drawn circles of a crew neck or the arrow-points of a shirt collar.
And yet frills and ruffles will never go away, because human nature yearns to be more than fit for purpose, and fashion reflects this. A ruffle suggests frivolity, gaiety, excitement; but also irrationality, whimsy, wilfulness. (Think of Scarlett O'Hara in her ivory frills.) The ideal ruffle, therefore, harnesses the frivolity-to-excitement element, while eliminating the irrationality.
The simplest way to ensure your ruffles are wearable is to approach them in a rational way. Don't pour them on all over: you are a grown woman getting dressed, not a five-year-old decorating a cupcake. One bold, surf's-up wave of a frill is easier to wear than a series of smaller ripples.
Use ruffles to break up the boring, not to make your whole outfit look busy. Black, white and electric blue are good colours in which to ruffle a few feathers. (Red is a bit flamenco.) A well-judged flourish adds a wink to your outfit; too much, and you start to look hysterical, in both senses of the word.
• Jess wears top, £29.99, mango.com. Skirt, from a selection, edelinelee.com. Courts, £175, russellandbromley.co.uk.
Stylist: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Sharon Ive at Carol Hayes Management.