Benazir Bhutto is dead. She was murdered today in Rawalpindi, along with a score of her supporters, by a suicide bomber.

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The sales are upon us. Here’s how to shop without committing murder

Today’s Christmas Eve and barring those last-last-minute presents, most of us are about ready for Christmas, the turkey is defrosting and we’re getting ready for tomorrow. But come the day after, the sales begin in earnest, with all those seemingly-irresistible opportunities to snap up a bargain.

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A quick guide to thermals

It’s cold today. Outside it’s about minus 8, taking windchill into account, and in this office it’s about 17 degrees.

Seventeen degrees isn’t illegal, so even if I worked for somebody else, which I don’t, I couldn’t go on strike - the lowest limit for a legal office temperature is 16 degrees. But the optimal temperature for working is 21 degrees, so we’re falling far short. Even sitting next to my plug-in radiator, however, I’m not going to get my working environment much warmer, because this house is a draughty old pile, so I have to dress warmly to compensate.

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Classic clothes are the backbone of your wardrobe - here’s what to look for in footwear

Footwear is a very personal affair, with one woman’s frumpy being another woman’s practical, and one woman’s sexy being another woman’s slutsville. However, footwear is also one way in which to express yourself personally (’red shoes no knickers’) or introduce a bit of colour or texture into an outfit.

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Classic clothes are the backbone of your wardrobe - here’s what to look for in patterns.

The majority of clothing is made in plain colours, but a proportion of patterned clothing is very useful in any wardrobe. It rings the changes, shows you’re up to date, ties together two disparately-coloured parts of an outfit and is a great way to introduce a bright colour that you may not want to wear in a large block.

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Not long ago it was the 40th anniversary of Doreen, the best-selling bra in the UK.

I had never heard of Doreen, which surprised me. I’ve always loved clothes, and underwear, was a big fan of Janet Reger, Rigby and Peller et al. But I find that my ignorance is not surprising. The reason? Doreen is never advertised.

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If you’re decking the halls with boughs of holly this Christmas, here are some foolproof evening options to get you through the season

Occasionwear can really bug the hell out of a woman once she reaches 40. Where are the sleeved dresses that disguise a bit of bingo wing? Why is it so difficult to find a ’smoking’ suit? Why are there so many shiny fabrics? Why do manufacturers not acknowledge that most of us eat like pigs over the holiday season and gain five pounds?

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Classic clothes are the backbone of your wardrobe. Here’s what to look for in dresses.

Not every woman needs a dress. While trousers, skirts, tops, jackets and coats are all very useful, some women can go all year without reaching for a dress, especially if they don’t wear one for work. However, a dress can be a great no-fuss option in a wardrobe. It enables you to immediately have a co-ordinated outfit, it’s always appropriate for evening, and it lends instant femininity.

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Classic clothes are the backbone of your wardrobe - here’s what to look for.

Tops are generally among the cheaper items in your wardrobe so they’re actually a good way to ring the changes in fashion rather than sticking with the classics, but nevertheless there are designs for tops that recur again and again and it’s useful to understand how these work. The fact is there are very few basic designs in tops - what designers do is change or add on to the basic shape with seams, ruffles, different cuffs, etc each year, and that is what we call ‘fashion’.

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I was reading the November 2007 edition of US Vogue the other day.

Normally I’m a pretty big fan of American Vogue, which along with American Glamor is the only fashion mag I bother to open these days (excluding the loo reading of the dog-eared women’s mags which circulate in this neighbourhood of broke British ex-pats, usually supplied in packs by somebody’s mum from Blighty).

Vogue, under the leadership of Anna (’Nuclear’) Wintour kind of makes me laugh, with its ridiculously elitist interviews and fantastically high-priced garments, but it does at least take fashion seriously and its Democratic principles aren’t in doubt - it remains solidly on the side of pro-choice, pro-liberal.

But I’m disappointed with the November issue’s article on wardrobe simplifying - Why less is more.

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