The Hitlist: Buckle up!

When I was an impressionable 13-year-old I remember listening, wide-eyed, to my older sister tell me that EVERYTHING comes back in, eventually. Everything. Even mullet haircuts. She mouthed the words like a teenager reaching the climax of a ghost story. I was aghast. I told her that the next people to have mullet haircuts would be the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and that would still be too soon. Lo and behold, despite my predictions, not more than a year later the new age mullet returned to the streets. My style innocence shattered.

The moral of the story is: there is nothing fashion cannot chew up, spit out, nibble again, spit out, and so on.

All this is a way of saying that either Alexa Chung has been glued into a pair for the summer as some kind of fashion joke, or dungarees are once again an acceptable dish on the style menu. And the most surprising thing is how brilliant they can be.

Essentially, it's business as usual. For evening, as you would when dressing up a scruffy pair of jeans, you need to combine denim dungarees with a printed shirt and statement necklace, plus smart shoes, and always heels if long dungarees are your poison. They are hungry for smartness - so feed them! Alternately, add converse and a striped top for perfectly pinafored weekend gear.

If denim is a throwback too far, opt for smart dungarees in a silky or stiff fabric. You can afford to turn the tapered sort up and team with brogues and smart socks for work-ready cool. If you eye a tapered leg with a healthy level of suspicion, take a patterned, flared number and add big wedges and a floppy hat for rad 70s chic.

Skirt, shorts or slacks; there's a plethora of possibilities. So strap in, turn up and come along for the ride! Don't let those horsemen bother you.

The Hitlist