Polka dots, fanny packs and retro sneaks –– what’s not to love about this look? It could go anywhere. Well, almost anywhere. Swap the fanny pack for an Hermes belt, and the sneaks for stilettos, and you’re off the the ball.

My eldest child has a uniform of leggings, more leggings, tanks tops and sweat shirts. If for a day I could dress her, I may choose a darling handmade blouse from Rairai –– something like this –– paired with a Bobo Choses skirt. Maybe in a decade or two, she may come to appreciate embroidered collars and printed skirts. After she’s had enough of slashed fishnets and barely there dresses.

I didn’t go to a prom, or wear a corsage, but at that age, I would have likely worn carnations and baby’s breath on my wrist. Today, I’d opt for a giant peony, or a dhalia the size of a dinner plate. I like this dried option, too. It’s so delicate and whimsical. As for the dress, tiers of glitter are always good on the dance floor.

I was searching for a gift for my niece’s birthday, and I came across these adorable printed rompers. She’s only two, so the gift is more for my sister-in-law and brother. She’d be happy tearing through the paper it’s wrapped in! Truth be told, if I could pull it off, I’d wear one myself. Romper, espadrilles, big old sun hat. Why not?

Does anyone remember those velvet headbands, the ones we wore with taffeta puffballs and patent shoes? I’d rather like to revisit that phase, now that my eyebrows aren’t so bushy and my teeth aren’t so bucky. Jennifer Behr makes a beautiful braided version, in every colour you can imagine. Bubble skirt, optional.

Stars, tassels, hearts and tropical fruit –– just look at these danglers by Mercedes Salazar! These cockatoos are charming, and so are the toucans. Hello, lemon drops! And eat your heart out, Carmen Miranda. I gather they’re super light on the lobes, and they go well with white tees, fancy gowns and everything in between.

Much to grandmother’s chagrin, I rarely bother with anything more than jeans when I’m going out in the evening, but I do love me a good blouse. Puffy sleeves and ruffles are always an instant draw. This top by Maryam Nassir Zadeh is kind of perfect, with its exaggerated shoulder poufs, and pretty cinched waist. It comes in tomato red and pale blue polka dots. It’s a mega splurge, but something tells me, it’s a top with 1000 wears.

I was going through some old papers and I came across a magazine clipping that resonated with me as much today as I’m sure it did ten or so years ago, when I cut it out of a magazine. Maybe it was for different reasons, but I was thankful that I had kept it. It’s a passage from Alison Adburgham’s, View of Fashion. “And sometimes, something more emerges after the main assignment is completed. At the back of the mind here have been stored some small but treasured vignettes. It is as with the child’s suitcase at the end of the seaside holiday; after the clothes have been unpacked there is underneath a collection of cowries and cockles, dried seaweed, pieces of coloured glass worn smooth by the waves, a piece of cork, an uninhabited sea-urchin, a mermaid’s empty purse. So are the impressions left, not by the dress shows themselves, but by the people in the bars and the bistros, girls on motor scooters, the children’s balloons in the Tuilleries, the pictures in the Jeu de Paume, the shop windows, the smell of Gaulouises, garlic, and Arpège, the dim interior seen through an open window, the concierge in the courtyard sunning herself on a kitchen chair, the lovers in the Vert Galant disregarding the world in their island garden. All these things suddenly fall into a pattern, and fashion is part of the pattern, and the pattern has meaning because it is quickened by ordinary, everyday life.”