For most of us, the biggest questions we have to face relating to our hair, is how much to have cut, or when to have our highlights retouched. But for some women, who have suffered the esteem-shredding horror of hair loss through alopecia or following chemotherapy, there are more fundamental questions, such as will I ever be able to look at myself in the mirror again.

From flowing waves to Cheryl Cole-style "big hair" and full-on candy floss frizz, the styles for summer and autumn are full of movement, volume and texture and - like the seasons' fashion they are designed to complement - they owe a lot to earlier decades.

If you thought tanning got complicated when SPF numbers were introduced back in the 1980s, you may find that the labelling introduced following last year's round of EU sun-screen regulations drives you to a darkened room for a little lie down.

There is barely a current fashion trend that doesn't owe its provenance to the latter half of the 20th century: sweetheart necklines and below-the-knee pencil skirts from the 50s, ladylike A-line shift dresses from the 60s and batwings and beading from the 70s. Naturally, the high street faithfully replicates the fashion of these eras but, as many women have discovered, why buy new when you can be totally authentic with vintage.

One woman who has been buying vintage since long before it became cool is Leeds-born Judy Berger, founder of the Affordable Vintage Fair.

It's not sexy, we know; and it is reminiscent of the lectures we all got/get from our mothers, but it really can be cathartic (not to say hugely practical) to give your closet a clear-out. And right now, in that window between winter-sales splurging and planning spring purchases, is the perfect moment to do it: to decide what to keep and what to send to the local All Aboard shop, even - quaint, old-fashioned thought - to decide what to repair and what, in these recessionary times, might be given a bit of va-voom with some TLC and, maybe, some new buttons.

According to F Scott Fitzgerald, there are no second acts. Well try telling that to Elizabeth Emanuel, who on Tuesday night was due to perform not her second act but her fourth.

A new skincare collection based around the white peony has been launched by a woman with no previous experience of the beauty industry.

Dianna Cohen was on a business trip to Taiwan four years ago when she noticed the smooth, youthful skin of the women and began asking questions.

"I discovered that the local women regularly consume the root and petals of the white peony, which is a natural antioxidant and has been known for hundreds of years for its healing and beauty properties," she explained.

Serendipitously, the garment set to have a real fashion moment this season - a ladylike blouse - happens to make the perfect transitional piece at this time of year. The blouse is the ideal apparel for early-autumn, when it can be too mild to plunge into winter's fashion-fabulous pieces such as aviator jackets, fur collar tailored jackets and perfectly groomed, minimal-chic coats, yet is also too late for tribal-print maxis no matter how balmy the weather.

Let's be clear. When every fashion page - including this one two weeks ago, and our glossy Edge - is telling you to get into camel, they/we are talking "fashion" camel, which is anything approximating to that pale toffee shade, rather than to a garment made from the fine, soft, warm and prohibitively expensive hair of an actual camel.

It is impossible to ignore the influence that the 1950s and early 60s are currently exerting on trends - big skirts, wide, waist-cinching belts, capes, hairbands, below-the-knee pencil skirts, soft blouses, nipped-waist jackets...

In the 40 years that Susan Graff has been designing dresses for the high-end girlswear brand David Charles, she has seen fashions come, go and come back again. But it's the girls themselves who have changed the most in four decades.

They are "more assertive, more demanding and achingly fashionable", but that should not mean parents should give in to their daughters' desire to look like mini versions of Paris Hilton or Lady Gaga, insists Graff.

There is a new fashion mood this autumn and it doesn't shout - it whispers. It offers a new minimalism, but with distinctly luxe touches like fur and leather, and it marks a return to a low-key, polished elegance. It is about clothes that are grown-up but often with a twist - either literally, as in clever knots of fabric at Yves St Laurent, Burberry Prorsum and Elie Tahari; or metaphorically, like ribbed tights with brogues or 40s-style platforms to sharpen something that might, otherwise, slip into soporific dullness.

An ex-kibbutznik is an unlikely candidate as the creator of a cosmetics collection beloved by a slew of celebs including Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Myleene Klass.

But Israeli-born David Oren (right), who spent his early years on Kibbutz Ben Shemen before moving to the USA, is the creative mind behind Bellapierre, the pure mineral make-up collection on sale across the USA, Europe and the Middle East, and in 17 stores across the UK and Ireland including House of Fraser, where it launched just two months ago.

It's called Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me, and if you obeyed the title you would finish up with a strained shoulder (it weighs in at a hefty two-and-a-half pounds). But Paula Begoun's heavyweight paperback is certainly the book to consult before you go shopping for anything that you might put on your face, from blusher to bronzer, exfoliator to eye-serum.

Our fashion desk - in common with most of the fashion media - has been in denial about the sales. There are sound reasons for this: once we cross the threshold into a "sales" period, we are tacitly acknowledging that the current season is over. So, if we write about sales in June, we are compelled - just at the point when most of us wish to stock up on bikinis, filmy frocks and summery sandals - to stop writing about them and start showcasing autumn trends instead.

Debenhams’ coterie of designers just keeps getting stronger. The latest to join a stable which already includes Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Betty Jackson, Matthew Williamson and Ben de Lisi, is Ted Baker.

The brand, which was founded in Glasgow by the (Jewish) Ray Kelvin, has created a lingerie and sleepwear collection called B by Ted Baker, exclusively for Debenhams stores nationwide.

Ahem, jumpsuits. You will have been reading about them intermittently since April in the glossies and the fashion pages — including this one — but have you yet seen a woman over the age of 17 (celebs in Grazia and Hello apart) actually wearing one?

No, nor me — which is a pity, because the jumpsuit is a stylish, quite grown-up option if you find the right one.

The perennial desirability of white for high summer — both in practical terms for reflecting light, thus making it cooler than dark shades, and aesthetics (nothing looks quite as fabulous on a hot day as icy white) — means that designers return to this particular monochrome every few summers. They cater for a clientele who are unperturbed by weather and possibly less bothered by the extra laundering that is necessary to keep white looking good.

Most fashion pages - these included - proceed from the premise that the majority of its readers are "average" size. In our (ok, my) fluffy, fashion-obsessed head, that translates as size eight to 14, height 5ft 3in to 5ft 7in. In fact, the reality is somewhat different.

The "average" clothing size of British women these days is 16 (up from 14 in 2000, and 12 in 1988), and the average height for UK women is 5 ft 4in.