Dressing for grown-ups, part three

Following on from articles one and two, here are five more tips on how to look good at any age.

11 Create a signature look

Once you hit 40 is the time in your life to focus on what you yourself are really interested in when it comes to clothing - not what the designers tell you that you should be interested in. There is no need to change your look from season to season - it is easier and more workable to develop a signature look.

So what is your favourite thing? Is it colour, for instance? Because if there's a colour that suits you, wear it every day - make yourself known for it. You're the woman who wears red. Or you're the woman who wears leopard-print. Or you're the woman who wears green. You can carry that look through every season of the year, no matter what your age. Ignore what the designers are doing - go your own way.

Another way to build a signature look is to focus on a particular type of garment. For many women, let's face it, it's shoes - they have more pairs of shoes than there are weeks in a year. For others it's jackets, or skirts, or handbags. In this case you can be the 'hat woman', or the 'bag woman' or the woman who lets her personality shine out through her legs and feet.

For me, it's something else. I am finally, in my mid-40s, indulging my secret passion for jewellery - not diamonds and status items but craftsman-made jewellery in silver and semi-precious stones. Pieces by my friend Susi Hines such as this charm bracelet are always the most welcome, but I'm also partial to Native American jewellery. This Navaho-made necklace in turquoise I hope will stay with me until the day I drop off the twig, and since it is not IN fashion, it will never be OUT.

12 Choose your role models

Take a look at other women whose looks you admire, and try to work out what it is about them that works. Even if they don't look anything like you, nor lead the life that you lead, you can still be inspired by them. My heroes include Charlotte Rampling and Kristin Scott-Thomas, Jeanne Moreau and Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Frot and Marie-Claude Nechvatal. None of these women look even faintly like me but it's no surprise that they are all either French or live in France - there is a kind of cool, elegant, nonchalant and above-all intelligent approach to personal style embodied by the French that I find hugely appealing. This is what I aim for in my clothes, although our lives may be very different.

Other women may prefer the Chrissie-Hynde look, also personified by Carine Roitfeld, with its black eyeliner and don't-give-a-shit rock-chick persona. Or the ultra-glam Hollywood appeal of Jane Seymour and Susan Anton. Make a list of women and analyse what it is that actually appeals to you, and then try to incorporate it into your own approach to fashion. There are ways to approximate the look without copying it - to follow the spirit of it rather than the letter.

13 Build a capsule wardrobe

I mean, God knows I love clothes, but who wants to have to worry about the damn things all the time? I'll be writing later about how to build a capsule wardrobe, but for now let's just look at the concept - the idea that you need a small, flexible, workable wardrobe that meets all of your daily needs. More is not necessarily better - too much choice is as bad as too little when you want to get dressed in the morning. As you get older, your choice should become more discriminating and your wardrobe should reduce, not increase, in size.

Each woman is different, so you have to evaluate for yourself exactly what your needs are, but generally speaking, every woman needs stuff to sleep in, stuff to hang round the house in, stuff to work in (whatever your work is), stuff to perform leisure activities in, and stuff to perform a social life in. Make sure you hit all your bases, but obviously, for most of us, workwear takes precedence, though if your leisure pursuits involve specialist clothing, that can slice into the budget too.

Be realistic about your life - it's easy to build up a wardrobe of clothes for a life you don't lead, or will never lead, or used to lead but don't any longer.

14 Choose your fabrics

Matt stretch fabrics and lycra are your friend, whatever your size or shape. Always look for stretch, even in your major garments such as suits. Even as little as 2 per cent stretch in jeans or suiting will make a difference, extending the life of the garment and making it more comfortable to wear. This leads to a more relaxed look which is very current.

One of the things that differentiates retro clothing from its 1970s predecessors is the amount of stretch - we must all remember the camel-toe satin pants of the late 1970s that you had to lie down in to get them done up? Ghastly. And today's suiting is very flexible in comparison with the stiff suiting seen in the 1980s.

Also choose fabrics that are matt. If you like a bit of shine, wear it in jewellery, a wrap, or as trimming on a matt garment. Don't wear all-over shiny clothes except for evening.

15 Dress from head to toe

Aside from shoes, which show the wear and need a good budget, it's useful to spend your money near your face first, because that's where most people look - in descending order, the things that will get you noticed are: earrings, necklace or scarf, jacket, blouse, belt, skirt, tights.

For instance, £50 on a really nice pair of earrings will go a lot further than £50 on a new jacket. A new scarf has more impact than a new belt. If you wear the same black skirt and black tights to work every day for a month, no-one will notice - nobody looks at your bottom half (believe me, this is true, I've tested it). But wear the same blouse to work on two consecutive days and people will think you either have an interesting home life or that you just don't wash.

The same rule applies to men's clothing, by the way - a good tie is more important than a good shirt, a good shirt is more important than a good jacket.

Next: dressing for grown-ups part four