Once bitten, twice shy

Beware: recycled trends are a serious fashion hazard, particularly for those who were there to wear them first time around, writes Kate Holmquist

Tiny cardigans and big flowery skirts look great on nubile 16-year-olds - but after the age of 36? Or even 26? You'd need to be a fashion victim to wear this season's Prada, inspired by Laura Ashley. Or this season's baby-doll dresses, inspired by Laura Ashley. Or even this season's Dolce & Gabbana, inspired by 1980s disco.

As for the baffling return of 1980s black leggings (reborn as "footless tights"): resist, resist, resist. Unless you're a miniature French woman, or an Irish woman with miniature French legs, avoid them. Maybe Sienna Miller can get away with ribbed tights and Birkenstocks . . . but only just.

Here's the golden rule: if you're old enough to have worn the trend first time around, think hard before reliving it a second time and don't go near it the third. Recycled trends are a serious fashion danger for women of experience - and men. The skinny black leather ties that Pete Doherty's been wearing lately may have appeared trendy the first time around, but if you're over 45, your friends won't get the irony.

Let's face it, style redux is more like fashion-acid reflux when you're too old to look as good as Keira Knightley naked, much less clothed like her in that famous slinky green 1930s dress in Atonement. Not toned? Don't even think about it. After a certain age, not even a full-body Spanx will let you wear that dress.

Stylist Catherine Condell is amused to see the return of pseudo-hippy smocked tops and dresses like those she wore 30 years ago with her red clogs. On anyone but "skinny Minnies" they look like maternity clothes and "men hate it" - "but the tweenies think it's the newest thing ever".

Looking like you strolled out in nothing but your knickers and your father's favourite oversized cardie is another trend. "It's not the easiest look, even if you're young, nubile and thin," says Condell. "Even though the whole fashion thing is my life, it doesn't run my life. I see more and more women living life for the bag they wear or the right skirt-length. It used to be that there was a trend and people interpreted it for themselves; now too many people are applying the trends literally. You see people like Chloë Sevigny in her extraordinary clothes and you don't know whether she is being uber, uber, uber, achingly cool. When everyone is deliberately wearing something hideous it's possible to lose objectivity."

THERE ARE CERTAINseasons when the designers are having a laugh, and this seems to be one of them, with trends from every decade since the second World War colliding, says Condell.

"Designers draw on everything they possibly can, and the poor unfortunates who are pulled into this can't see it. It's all got a bit out of hand recently."

In the post-postmodern world, people get recycled, too - their stylists make sure of it. Ladylike Gwyneth Paltrow has the refined look of Grace Kelly (complete with Hermès bag), Michelle Williams is ethereally like Mia Farrow with that boyish mod haircut, and Sienna Miller is as bohemian and free as Jane Birkin could have ever hoped to be. Voluptuous Jennifer Lopez actually dresses like Liz Taylor in Grecian draped gowns and headscarves, though with only four diamond engagement rings to her name, she'll have to double that to meet Taylor's quota. Even Scarlett Johansson, as natural-looking a girl as you can imagine, is restyled with Marilyn Monroe lips and bosom in the current issue of American Elle.

Male heart-throbs also get the remake treatment. Visualise Daniel Craig (take your time). Think of Steve McQueen. Enough said.

PHYL CLARKE, WHOdesigns the fashion pages for The Irish Times Magazineand writes the make-up column, says that trends you can revisit without embarrassing yourself include the beret. "Worn at the right tilt, this is a fashion classic that suits everyone." Black opaque Wolford tights were essential in the early 1990s and are just as indispensable now, she adds: "The only way to wear a skirt above the knee." The bright jewel tones of the early 1980s, worn in a blouse or a jacket, can revive the complexion when worn by someone who was a teenager in those years.

"When you're older, you can wear many of the trends, but never think you can buy them in Top Shop alongside your daughter. You have to shop in good boutiques and spend more money so that the cut and the fit are right for your more mature figure. Buy less but buy well," she advises.

Wear your clothes; don't let them wear you.