Forget Flamenco, this season those ruffles have been given a modern makeover, says Rebecca Gonsalves

We've all had wardrobe disasters. Few of us, however, retire to our room for three days to recover. But few of us are Mona von Bismarck, who did just that when, in 1968, the great Cristóbal Balenciaga closed his couture house with the declaration that there was no one left to dress.

In the eighteenth century, the great British export was style. French aristocrats saw Britain as a land of freedom and adopted our stout, hardy wool and tweed country squire attire as a badge of allegiance to the Rousseau-ean rusticity and democracy embodied here.

Whether patterned or plain, it's time to say pants to party dresses, says Rebecca Gonsalves

Main image: skull umbrella, £185, Liberty

Designer Nicholas Ghesquiere is to leave his post as creative director at Balenciaga.

It's always difficult, stepping into someone else's shoes – especially when you have high arches. And it's even more difficult when those shoes have been worn for so long and with such panache by their previous owner.

What does the Independent woman wear?

There's a futuristic alternative to a golden glow this season. Just don't think of it as a runner-up in the fashion stakes, says Gemma Hayward

It's an exciting new direction for the casually cult brand

What To Do, See & Buy

When Selfridges unveiled their newly appointed womenswear department at the beginning of the year, hopes were high.

Feeling liverish, as your granny used to say? The good news is that this is the one time of year when it is nothing short of uncouth to consider wearing anything remotely fashionable and, even more so, tight-fitting and/or fabulously transformative.