The (Screen Actors Guild) SAG awards were the latest opportunity for the fashionistas to dress up, and the message of the day was colour.

Most bright colours were seen, from peacock blues, jades and reds, to softer butter-yellows and a surprising amount of taupe. Left is Christina Applegate in bright jade satin, and right is Eva Longoria in peach chiffon, rather going against the more columnar silhouette that was generally seen.

This move to colour is in marked contrast to the last Oscars, where most women wore black. Perhaps now that the recession is truly with us, we all need something to cheer ourselves up.

There were many assymmetric dresses (hello First Lady) with one shoulder or a side or waist cut out (Katie Holmes' dress had the entire side cut out, which was perfectly balanced with the sleeve coverage and her youthful short hair), and there was also a lot of frou-frou, or at least frou, with one half of a gown - top or bottom according to taste - liberally festooned with ruffles, appliques or sequinned triangles.

Nevertheless, my favourite dress was neither coloured nor frilly - Anne Hathaway's white columnar dress with rhinestone trim was like a classic 1930s Hollywood offering and she looked lovely in it. 

For views of more gowns, visit About.com.

Yellow is THE colour for the coming fashion season, according to About.com.

Well, I'm happy not to argue.

Yellow is a good pick-me up colour for tough times (which, God knows, these are) and what could be more appropriate for spring than yellow? As any gardener knows, many spring flowers are yellow (those that aren't are mainly blue or white, which is also a pretty good colour combination). A vase of yellow daffs or a wash of celandines appearing under the oak trees always gladdens the heart. 

Yellow is one of those shot-in-the-arm colours and works very well in accessories such as scarves, hats, gloves and bags, though you can also wear it as a garment (for total overload, check it out in Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, yellow being the imperial colour of China). My primrose-yellow sweaters give me a fillip, worn with black or dark brown, and of all the scarves I own, possibly the most worn is a vintage yellow foulard with white polka dots. 

The yellow that About.com features is from the Marc Jacobs collection, and is quite a rich saffron colour - almost mustard, and while it might not be your first choice for an attractive shade, actually it goes with more than you might think, marrying particularly well with amber or gold jewellery and natural straw. I once had a bag this colour with brown leather trim, and it works in any season - bright enough for spring and summer, but livening up a winter coat as well. As shown, Jacobs' yellow bag has a bit of pattern to break it up, which is nicer than a simple block of yellow.

Following on from Dressing for Grown-ups, parts 1-3, here are five last fashion ideas that should suit grown-up girls of any age.

16 Wear three colours per outfit

OK - four if one of them's a neutral, but even then, generally, three is a better number. More than this and you can end up looking like Coco the clown. If you lead a practical life, or it's winter, the majority of your outfit should be a dark neutral (for summer, a pale neutral is an option), plus two other colours that either tone or contrast depending on your temperament (if you like loud contrasts, that's up to you, though I wouldn't advise it).

For city life, you can't go wrong with black or navy, mixed with white or cream, while for the country, colours like chocolate brown, burgundy or khaki may look more in keeping as a base colour. Personally, I prefer solid colours, but if you like prints, categorise them by their base colour - if a print is predominantly brown, say, treat it as 'brown' within the context of the outfit. But don't mix prints unless you're specifically aiming for a boho look - this is a look that's difficult to pull off successfully.

17 One speaker, two listeners

This is a tip I learned from sewing, where you're advised to always buy fabrics in threes - one fabric that 'speaks' in the outfit you're aiming to create, and two others that 'listen' quietly. It works like a charm and creates a focal point within an outfit. You also begin to value the quiet things that allow prettier things to stand out.

It works like this: if you've got one bold colour, don't wear a second bold colour - wear two others that are more subdued. If you've got one bold texture, don't wear a second bold texture - keep the others smooth and visually quiet. If you're wearing a fantabulous necklace, don't wear big chandelier earrings and a flashy watch - wear simple earrings and no watch at all. If you're wearing a beautiful skirt, keep the top plain.

The speaker/listener idea works whatever you're wearing and also enables you to draw attention to the best parts of your anatomy while allowing other bits to fade into the background.

18 Relax your outlook

And I don't just mean chill out and don't worry too much (they're only clothes after all, not the roof over your head), I also mean relax your formality. Formality of all kinds is ageing. Lacquered hair, gold buttons, brocade fabrics, stiff suiting, too much satin - you know the drill. Tory Prime Minister's wife, it says. Christine Hamilton before the Louis Theroux thing. Leonora Helmsley. There's nothing remotely sexy about this degree of starchiness - nothing warm or inviting about it. Who wants to look like a vicar's wife - so neat, so correct, so inoffensive? So if you have that brocade jacket, wear it with jeans and sandals. If you have those gold buttons, swap them for mother of pearl or coco shell. If you have that helmet hairstyle, lay off the lacquer so you can run your hands through your hair. Loosen up. Loose is sexy.

19 God is in the details

Alright, Mies Van de Rohe said that about architecture, but it equally applies to clothes. When you're buying things, look for telling details - what the trade call 'dressmaker details'. The key point about dressmaker details is that they are usually only apparent when you get up close - they are not in any way loud or flashy - but they can make all the difference to an outfit. All quality items have details like: a row of prick-stitching around a jacket collar, a fine line of beading to weight down a bias-cut skirt, completely dead-flat double interlocking on a t-shirt, a contrast facing that gives a flash of colour. There is no need to settle for the same everyday basics as everyone else - look for clothes that have a tiny, unique twist of originality.

20 Punch above your weight

A lot of women feel intimidated about going into shops where they know they can't afford anything, but there is absolutely no need to feel this way. Looking at clothes you can't afford is a great way to get your eye in with regard to quality fabric and detailing. No-one knows who you are, and it costs nothing to try on clothes. So what if the sales assistants are snotty? They're only shop girls - what do you care what they think?

One great tip my friend R gave me is that whenever a new trend comes out and you'd like to try it - try it at the high end of the market first. If a look doesn't suit you here, where the manufacturer has cut no corners, it won't suit you when it's reinterpreted at a lower price point (which it will be, as fashion has a never-ending trickle-down effect). R never actually bought anything at Donna Karan or Ralph Lauren, but she spent a lot of time in there trying things on.

Besides, they have nicer changing room and sometimes free coffee. Who doesn't want that?

Anyone remember them? Spring, summer, autumn and winter babies, we were all meant to fit into these four neat pigeonholes. What a load of cobblers. Instead, here's some practical advice about colour and clothing:

Dark neutrals

These should be the basis of every wardrobe: by dark, I mean colours like black, chocolate brown and charcoal grey, and - to a lesser extent - navy, burgundy, olive and khaki. These are dirt-proof colours and nearly always look good, even in cheaper fabrics (generally speaking, the paler the colour, the better quality the material needs to be, so if your budget is small, go for the dark stuff). Many of the dark neutrals also go well together, extending their usefulness.

Medium neutrals

These should be the backup colours in your wardrobe for everyday basics - colours like taupe, beige, camel, oatmeal, rust and denim blue. Again, nearly all of them go together. They are slightly less formal and businesslike than the dark neutrals, which is handy if you live a casual life, and they also lend themselves very well to textures such as tweed.

Pale neutrals

These work best on your top half unless you're a lady of comparative leisure, or it's high summer, when it's easier to wear them in a whole-body outfit such as a dress. By pale neutrals I mean colours such as white, cream, ivory, palest pink, pale grey, nude and very pale shades of blue and beige. Be very careful that your pale neutrals don't clash with your underlying skin tones, however - you'll know which ones they are from the number of people who ask if you're feeling OK today...

Copy your eye colour

Pick up your eye colour with tops, jewellery, scarves and other accessories. Matching or complementing your eye colour is very simple to do and gives your face an amazing lift - try turquoise or lapiz jewellery for blue eyes, bloodstone or jade for green-eyes, tiger's eye and topaz for brown-eyed babes...you get the drift. Scarves, poloneck sweaters and anything else that you wear close to your face works equally well. You will not believe how many compliments you get when you follow this simple trick

Copy your hair colour

In tune with copying your eye colour, try picking up your hair colour in the main pieces of your outfit - that means straw, camel or beige for blondes, chestnut for brunettes, rust for redheads, silver for grey-haired women, black for raven-haired beauties. If you can, use the colour both top and bottom, to give you a long, lean line from head to toe (this works especially well in evening wear), but if you can't, focus on your top half.

Cosmetic colours

That's terminology used by stylists and it means the colours you'd naturally use for lipstick, foundation and blusher, shades such as flesh, peach, pink, azalea, crimson and scarlet. If you don't feel up to a whole outfit or even a top in these colours, consider scarves or jewellery. They are very useful if you've had a bad night - just like slapping on some blusher to make yourself look brighter, a peach silk scarf will give you a glow.

The wrong colours

You'll find more of these as you age and your skin tone bleaches out. They're any colour that makes you look tired, drained, older or sick. Particular culprits are shades of putty, olive and beige, which is annoying because these are also very practical colours - the trick, if you own them already, is not to wear them near your face but to confine them to your bottom half.

Also worth avoiding, by and large, are 'hard' colours such as magenta, hot pink, electric blue and lime green. These only really work well in summer sunshine, and they look better against youthful, dewy skin.

Really bright metallic colours such as silver and bright gold are also difficult: tarty at the best of times, on a woman over 40 they can shift you into mutton dressed as lamb territory. Instead, choose the darker metallics such as pewter, bronze and copper, or dark golds with soft glow, not a hard glitter.