Alright, alright, I know it's shallow, but here we go. The truth is, in an age where thinness is valued, many of us do want to look thinner in our clothes.

Anyone who's as skinny as she wants to be can stop reading here, but for everyone else (like me, after a winter of lard butties) here are some tips. 

* Aim for a long, lean, sleek line in everything you buy - don't buy clothes with volume. 

* Dress in one colour from top to toe, including tights and shoes. It's an age-old tip, but it really does work. If you tend to wear dark clothes and it seems too gloomy, make sure that your top half matches your bottom half (say, a jacket and skirt) but wear a contrasting blouse. Or wear dark brown, navy or charcoal instead of black. However, this trick also works in paler colours, including white.

* Matt dark fabrics with stretch are your best friend: think microfibre stretch tees, merino knit pencil skirts, suedette pull-on boots, poloneck sweaters. 

* Avoid texture, which adds bulk - mohair, boucle knits, guipure lace etc. If you like this sort of thing, save it for cushion covers and sofa throws, not your body.

* Stick to fluid, feminine fabrics such as wool or silk crepe, chiffon and knits. Avoid stiff, men's-type suiting fabrics or anything hard-edged such as patent leather or vinyl.

* 2-5 per cent stretch in any garment is usually a good idea.

* Don't wear your clothes too large. Jackets, coats and blouses should fit to the shoulder. Everything else should skim your figure, not envelope it.

* Don't wear shirts with a dropped shoulderline - these are men's garments, designed to make chests look broader (not something women generally want).

* Flip up your blouse collar at the back - it makes your neck look thinner. 

* Wear a long necklace or long thin scarf. If your necklaces have a tendency to drape themselves over one boob, try a heavy, flat pendant instead. 

* If your blouses gape, sew snappers inbetween the buttons for a better fit. 

* Wear your v-necks cut to the top of your bra or slightly higher. V-necks longer or higher than this, and crewnecks, tend to make your chest look vast. 

* Consider Henley necklines (round with a button-down front) or Moroccan necklines (round with a slit down the front), which bring emphasis back to your centre front. 

* Keep sleeves to elbow length or longer to hide bingo wings.

* Avoid short-sleeved garments - they're never the right length and it's usually more flattering to roll up the sleeves on a long-sleeved garment, which makes your forearm look daintier.

* Don't hide your ribcage area. This is the thinnest part of your torso, so it should always be visible. 

* Check that your bra is giving you enough uplift. Look for a 3-4 section cup, with or without an underwire, and thick straps that hoick your boobs up so your nipples are midway between your shoulder and elbow (or preferably higher). Lower than this, and your boobs will be hiding your ribcage, which will give a matronly look.

* If you have rolls of fat between bra band and waistband, wear high-rise knickers or an all-in-one control girdle. They're a lot more comfy than they used to be. 

* Make sure your clothes have vertical, not horizontal detailing. Vertical seams of the princess type are very slimming in jackets and blouses, giving a visual effect similar to boning.

* Diagonal shaping is also slimming - look for wrap tops, surplice tees, diagonal stripes etc. 

* Avoid bustline pockets and patch pockets on hips - these add bulk. Look instead for vertical pockets, or those that are inline with the side seam so they are invisible.

* Wear your jackets cut to the hip or high hip - NOT longer. A longer cut may comfort you with the idea that it covers your bum, but it also makes your legs look shorter. If you want to cover your backside, choose something with a more fluid structure than a jacket, such as a long tunic top. 

* Avoid dirndle skirts and pleated skirts that flare from the waist - they add bulk. If you like fullness in skirts, choose circle skirts, eight-gore flares or stitched-down pleats, which are flat at the waistline but flare out from about knee level. 

* Alter skirts so that they hit at the slimmest part of your knee - usually it's just above where it widens out into your calf. If you like narrow pencil skirts, have this done by a tailor because the side seams will also need taking in a bit. If you prefer longer skirts, have them about 4 inches above the ankle, in fluid fabrics, never at mid-calf length, which makes your legs look fatter.

* Do your utmost to find a good pair of jeans - then buy three of them. Look for dark indigo, bootcut, slight stretch, a proper v-shaped back yoke and the stitching on the side seams visible from the front to give a long line down your outside leg.

* For evening, think of fluid matt black trousers with black ribbon, braid or lace down the outer seam - this works on the same principle. 

* Look for shoes with a low vamp and no straps, to visually slim the foot. 

* Avoid ankle-strap shoes, and don't wear ankle boots with skirts. 

* Wear heels - if you look taller, you look thinner. If you're not comfy in heels, keep your flat shoes feminine and interesting but beware of ballerina pumps which can foreshorten the foot if the toes are very rounded.

* Consider knee-length boots instead of shoes, in the same colour as your skirt, for a long, unbroken line.

Damart can be horribly frumpy (they were once best known for thermal underwear, after all), especially in summer, when the majority of clothing available anywhere seems to turn to a dreadful hideousness, but as usual there are one or two gems there. 

Bypassing the vile leggings and cropped trousers, these jeans struck me as useful. You can choose from this pull-on type at top left (flat-fronted, but with handy belt loops, should you wish to hide your dreadful elastic secret), or a tummy-support design - IMHO, something every woman over 40 should have in her wardrobe. The former are only £16, while the latter are £35 and the nice thing about ordering from a catalogue is that no-one's watching when you try them on. 

This blouse (right) also has some very nice details - note all the vertical seams, the flattering neckline, the three-quarter sleeves that allow you to show off a bit of arm candy. It comes in ivory and a sort of grape colour on the UK site, but this taupe shade is only available on the .fr site.

This camisole (left) is also a good design - again with vertical detailing, wide straps you can get a bra under and enough length to be useful - while the piped navy cardi below is the sort of thing that would smarten up jeans or team with a white skirt or navy trousers for summer. It is a little formal for me, so even better is a navy and white striped one they have on the site.

Dressing smartly in summer is always a problem for mid-life women - especially for work. The office might be either air-conditioned or a sweatbox, while travelling can be a nightmare on public transport - at least in a car you can set your own temperature, but on a bus or a train, you never know what you're going to get. Meanwhile, if your look or your lifestyle doesn't suit strappy, clingy little bits of nothing and you do at least need to look respectable, the manufacturers aren't interested in you. 

Summer colours are often rubbish too. Pastels are often horrible shades of turquoise, peach and pink in cotton jersey or poly mixes that look cheap and nasty, and there are lots of overblown florals. Personally, when it comes to pattern, I favour stripes and polka dots for summer as they always look fresh.

With regard to colour, you can't go wrong with combis of a good neutral such as black, navy, khaki or taupe, mixed with white or cream, or self-patterned and tonal mixtures. The latter often work best in in medium-toned colours such as denim blue or taupe, as these go with virtually all other colours.

This classic shift dress shown right (what the Americans would call a 'jumper') is again available on the French site but I didn't see it on the UK one. Made of chambray, it could be worn almost anywhere from the city to the waterfront. I can see my friend C wearing this.

From the French site (not available in the UK) comes this crinkle cotton outfit (left), in khaki or blue. This is the kind of outfit beloved of French women in mid life: a bit of pattern, vertical detailing, no ironing required, a bit of flirt in the ruffles, and quite a lot of flexibility. You can team the dress with a cardi, shrug or the matching blouse, or go sleeveless, and the fabric can take an absolute hammering without showing a mark. I see a lot of women wandering round my supermarket in various dress-and-blouse or skirt-and-jacket combos like these. 

Sad that the UK site isn't offering these excellent clothes, given that it’s the same company, but there are some other nice dresses to choose from, including an A-line, button-down, princess-seamed dress in chambray. This is one of the most flattering dress shapes on most women, is cool for summer with that lack of a waist seam and can take a lot of dressing up or down with cardis, belts and bags. For my casual lifestyle, it would be a winner.

More on Damart later.

Last week I had one of my rare twinges of desire about clothing.

It doesn't happen often these days. Since I weaned myself off the habit of shopping and onto only buying new things to a: replace dead ones or b: to fill a serious wardrobe gap, I'm not much troubled by unfulfilled desire when it comes to clothes.

The thing I discovered some years ago was that hunger of any kind, if you don't indulge it, simply goes away. 

What tripped me up was being on Ebay. I can't even remember why I was there now, but 'just to look' I foolishly decided to search on the words 'long wool cardigan' and up came solid gold. A blonde-coloured, mohair, very long, belted, Nicole Farhi wrap cardigan coat. 

It was gorgeous. It was the right length. It was the right colour. It was the right fabric. Lord, it was even useful. But it wasn't the right price. It was only £30, but that's three months spending allowance for me.

Three months without books - my heart just sank. My monthly book is something I long for by mid-month (by which time I've usually finished both the new one and the DH's new one).

£30 for a Nicole Farhi cardigan coat is naff all - I do know this. And it would have been useful too. And beautiful. The trouble is, I just can't justify it. £30 would buy me half a dozen books. It would buy an ornamental tree for the garden; three shrubs; a meal out for the two of us. 

Also, due to having used my overdraft to pay off and close my last credit card, I am still overdrawn, and not until the new year will I have any prospect of being in the black. While I am in the red, I am firmly decided, there can be NO unecessary spending. Books are necessary to my happiness. Clothes, however beautiful, simply aren't. This cardigan coat, lovely though it was, though I would have worn it a thousand times, would not have fulfilled a role that nothing else can. The truth is, I already have two cardis quite like it. 

Oh la. Luckily, someone else stepped in and put me out of my misery by bidding, and I was able, regretfully, to walk away. 

So, I'm now off to dye a couple of jumpers. I may not be able to justify new clothes, but reworking old ones is something else. By the end of today, I will have 'something new', or at least as good as.

And, since it's November 1, Amazon marketplace here we come....

Nice little article here on more trends to avoid in the coming year, including lederhosen, clogs and tie-dye.

Tie-dye I'm quite partial to, actually, provided it's shibori, but this is a very sophisticated form. The kind you do at home with Quink ink and elastic bands has great potential for disaster.

Meanwhile, clogs and lederhosen? Really? Coupled with the strong military trend in current fashion, I'd say that was very worrying. Anyone for a spot of book-burning? 

It's all gone quite quiet on the fashion front since the recent shows, but I have been thinking about the new 80s and 90s revivals and about how they could be a real trap for women over 40.

For some of us, me included, the 80s was our heyday, but we'd better be wary of the extremes that this trend will undoubtedly bring (see left for clashing prints, cropped, baggy pants, wrapped waists et al), or all we'll be doing is reminding everyone of quite how long we've been on the planet. Fashion was fun when we had great skin and youth on our side, but it has to work harder for us now and although there are many trends I'm sure we'll all avoid (ripped jeans, holey clothes, exposed bras), there are others that could easily trip us up. The 90s are a safer era - fashion was considerably more grown-up - but it could still catch you out.

Faux pas - things to avoid

1 Wearing anything you've kept from 'then'. Secretly, I suspect that many of us have, hanging around in the wardrobe, some outfit in which we felt at our gorgeous best. But wearing it now - even assuming you can still get into it - is just not a good idea. Pass these garments on to your daughters or nieces, who'll be delighted to have a real-life 'vintage' garment from the era. The new 80s trend will look subtley different, if only because fabric technology has moved on so far and few of us will want to go back to the stiffness of 80s shoulderpads or the lack of stretch in everyday garments (thank God for Lycra). Meanwhile, are you seriously ever going to a rave again?

2 Over-egging it. When you're greeted by a whole bunch of familiar-looking outfits in the shops, that bring with them that sense of recognition, it's time to beware. Young is something we were, not something we are. Youthful - now there's another thing. You can be youthful at any age, which is more to do with fitness and state of mind than looks. But the purple drapy catsuits cut down to the navel are best left for the likes of Lily Allen, who can look great in them at 20-whatever-she-is. 

3 Hot, hot colours. Seriously, I'd be wary here. A lot of us loved these colours in the 80s - me included (with what fondness do I remember a screaming pink wool flannel coat, worn with purple trousers - ah...). A flash of colour in a scarf, a lining, a shoe or bag is fabulous and can really lift an outfit, but many of the hard, artificial colours that we're seeing again have a very blue cast that can look unattractive against an older skin. If you have black or grey hair, you can probably get away with those magenta pinks and peacock blues, but if your colouring is more even and you have brown, red or blonde hair, look for slightly softer, more natural shades, or keep it to accessories. Meanwhile, there's also a strong trend for camel and black - a good combination for most women.

4 Shiny fabrics. Give it a miss, love. Matt fabrics are the over-40s-babe's bestest bestest friend.

5 Draping. Most of us, with the passage of time, look better in a bit of sleek tailoring than in anything draped. The 80s really went to town with draping, and you can see it again - big sleeves, pleated waists, etc. I would be very careful about this. Especially avoid the mid-calf-length pleated skirt, which turns any woman into a gran, and the wide, wide, ruched sleeve that adds pounds to your torso.

Good things

1 A bit of a shoulder pad. A bit, note. A hint. A little bit of lift. Just enough to balance your hips and not more. The best on the runway were from Ungaro but even these were a bit wide.

2 A higher-waisted jean or trouser. A slightly dropped waist looks best on most women because it lengthens your torso slightly, and that makes you look thinner, but a higher waist is more comfortable for many women to actually wear. You can have the best of both worlds by wearing a higher-waisted jean or trouser with a t-shirt or blouse cut to high-hip length worn outside it.

3 Bodies. Provided you get the type with poppers at the crotch, or loose enough to pull out of the way while you're on the loo, a body gives you coverage, warmth, a sleek line and the sure knowledge that you won't be revealing any unintentional glimpses of skin or - God forbid - muffin top. Put it on and forget about it.

4 Sexy underwear. One area where mid-life women can really go to town is lingerie - wear what the hell you like: no-one (with exceptions) is going to know. Dior's underwear was really meant to be worn as outerwear, but a bit of transparency never went amiss on an older woman in any case, as Sophia Loren very well knows. If you want a low-cut, v-back or sleeveless dress, a chiffon or lace layer is always welcome, giving a hint without putting too much on the plate.

5 Minimalism. Whatever your style of life, whether it's blue jeans and t-shirts or black pencil skirts and crisp white blouses, a clean, minimal look is something that any woman can wear. Sleek hair, well-applied makeup, simple lines - it's easy. Visit Style.com for inspiration.