Tommy Hilfiger Poppy knit dress, 100% cashmere, £202
As soon as it starts to get colder, I want to wear knits. I stop with the crisp cotton shirts and the acetate lined dresses and want to swaddle in warm woolly comfort. A knitted dress is the ultimate in easy dressing, warm and stupidly simple to wear PLUS you get to wear thick tights. What's not to love?
Luckily for us, knitted dresses are having a moment, I have it on the coolest and best-connected of advice, oh yes. In the Guardian yesterday, fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley wrote about how cool jogging bottoms now are (stick with me) and explained that she had followed the advice of Fiona Collins, PR to the Tommy Hilfiger brand, who manages to make everything she wears look good. Well by fabulous coincidence as part of the day job I was meeting with the lovely Ms Collins that very morning. So I made a note of what she was wearing, and guess what? Yep, it was a knitted dress.
It was the one above in fact, which I checked out in the store after our meeting. It is a little more fitted than your average knitted dress and is made slightly edgier with the chunky zip details, Fiona had her zipped neckline worn undone and it looked sexy – as far as a knit dress can. It's also very snuggly being cashmere and has a pretty cuffed full sleeve.
We've also seen good ones in John Smedley and some very well priced ones in Uniqlo, Topshop and (of course) Cos, so keep a look out while they are hot, it's worth investing in a good one because they are timeless.
There is a problem with knitted dresses, they can be very stodgy if done wrong on our age group, so here are our tips
Wear them to the knee or shorter, any longer and you're in frumpsville.
Don't wear them tight, ever. If you want to add a bit of shape then wear a belt that sits on the hips, but a bit of gentle volume is really liberating.
Add colour. You will almost definately end up buying either black, navy or grey this year, so get a little interest in through coloured tights, big bold jewels or scarves (those lovely bright M&S cashmere jersey ones are good for adding shots of bold fuchsia and colbalt.
Buy wool or cashmere, nothing nastier than a soggy acrylic baggy bottom imprint. Natural fibres spring back into shape, acrylic doesn't.
Wear a petticoat underneath, everything will look sleeker.
Wear staggeringly high, jewel encrusted heels, preferably with a platform…….nah, only joking, does that sound like us? Knee high flat boots all the way, or you could wear ankle boots as this is a great year for them.
Knitted dresses have a tendency to pill, so buy one of John Lewis's magical fluff removers, I have one and it works like magic