Five things I know about style: Annie Mac

The presenter on comfort, confidence and why you should spend more on classics

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• Shahesta Shaitly
• The Observer, Sunday 22 May 2011
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Annie Mac's top style tips. Photograph: Observer

1 My style is boyish and tough. I like button-up shirts, T-shirts, skinny jeans, and either very high heels or trainers. I'm not into pastels; I love strong colour. I'm also loving this season's tropical/tribal prints trend!

2 Confidence is key. Assuming your own style, regardless of how bizarre or plain, is the best thing you can do. I don't like it when an outfit looks too put together or when someone is wearing shoes they can't walk in.

3 Don't bare too much flesh. Wear something fitted with something loose. Always have a colour pop situation going on: your handbag strap, neon nails or a really strong lipstick.

4 Be comfortable. I can't wear heels if I have meetings in town. I end up sore and looking uncomfortable. Always have a pair of flat shoes – heels can go in the handbag for later.

5 Shop less and spend more money on classics. I do buy a lot from Topshop, Urban Outfitters and Zara, but I bought two classic shirts from Whistles yesterday – perhaps it's a sign I'm growing up.

Annie Mac Presents is at the O2 Academy Brixton on 28 May

£75,000 bid on eBay

Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat gets a £75,000 bid on eBay

Proceeds from sale of hat created by Philip Treacy will go to Unicef and Children in Crisis

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• Agencies
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 21 May 2011 20.07 BST
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Princess Beatrice, left, arriving at Westminster Abbey to attend the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Auction site eBay says a bidder has offered £75,000 ($120,000) for the spiralling headpiece worn by Princess Beatrice at last month's royal wedding.

The bidding, which closes at 5pm on Sunday, was disrupted on Saturday afternoon when the eBay page appeared to suggest the item had been removed, with message: "This listing has been removed, or this item is not available."

However, a spokeswoman for Children in Crisis, one of the charities benefiting from the auction, said the auction is ongoing.

Beatrice, the 22-year-old granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, startled commentators with the swirling hat she wore to the wedding of her cousin Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The silk Philip Treacy creation has been compared to antlers, a toilet seat and a pretzel, and has been photoshopped into scores of unlikely scenarios on the internet.

How to Wear a Silk Scarf 10 Different Ways (Video)

from Red Hair: Makeup Tips for Redheads - StyleList by Sarah St. Lifer

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Filed under: Accessories, Fashion, How to Wear

Get inspired by this animated video which illustrates 10 different silk scarf looks.

The reason there's so much sex in fashion adverts . . .

Because it's likely your fashion decisions have, at least once, been dictated by the opportunity of having sex. But Tom Ford sees double entendres where there is hardly an entendre

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• • Hadley Freeman
  • guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 April 2011 21.00 BST
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Cartoonish fashion sex, Tom Ford-style.

Why is so much fashion advertising so pornographic? I thought they were supposed to be selling clothes, not sex.

Bill, by email

But Bill – clothes are sex. Even if you don't have orgasms over stilettos, à la Carrie Bradshaw, then it's likely that at some point your clothing choices have been dictated by the possibility of having sex. But not always. And that is the key issue here, one that certain fashion labels have failed to note.

People who love fashion see it as a means to express themselves, to indicate their demographic via a designer (eg Roberto Cavalli = Eurotrash; Yohji Yamamoto = self-consciously cerebral gallery owner), and to show their individuality. And often all three – despite the contradiction in believing one is being an individual by emphasising the demographic one belongs to.

People who don't like fashion, though, see it as the most extreme expression of vanity. Thus, when they see clothes that are not obviously, or even slightly, flattering, and when they see models whose clavicles protrude further than their breasts, they always say the same thing: "But that's not attractive! I'm not turned on! What's the point? Fashion – it's so crazy!" etc etc.

Now, without wishing to defend the anorexic aesthetic too many editors and designers still favour among their teenage employees, fashion is not actually about sex appeal, as anyone who has ever been to a Comme des Garçons show would know. It's about something more interesting than that.

Sadly, it is not always easy to convince people of this argument, particularly when one is attempting to make it in close proximity to any advert from the likes of Tom Ford.

Ford is an interesting gentleman, one who, despite approaching his 50th birthday, still regards sex with the thigh-rubbing, hyper-excitement of a virginal teenager who has spent too long in his room looking at porn. Here is a man who sees double entendres where there is hardly an entendre, and who once advertised a bottle of men's cologne by photographing it between a woman's bare breasts: "Wear this cologne and soon you'll be nestling in a cleavage, too!" Yes, Tom, we get it. So it was inevitable that when it came time to design adverts for his new shower gel, he would photograph a pair of naked youths, and is now waiting for the cash to roll in – doubtless while lounging at home in a silk gown next to a conveniently naked Scarlett Johansson, who is licking a stick of Tom Ford deodorant.

There is nothing wrong with appreciating sexuality, but the tendency of certain fashion designers to go for the, shall we say, bottom line in their adverts is a bit immature, to say nothing of tragic. Sex, as someone once said, sells, but to reduce fashion to being about the pursuit of a cartoonish version of sex is self-defeating. Ford and his ilk are saying that fashion is only about inspiring desire in others when it should be about giving pleasure to oneself. This not only makes anyone who likes fashion have an even tougher time defending it, but also means Ford will be stuck knocking out molto sexy LBDs to the day he dies, and he will never know the pleasure of making a Comme des Garçonsesque sack-like dress that is hideous but has the most fabulous detailing and is weirdly, inexplicably, fun to wear. Lose lose, Ford.

Can you explain at what point does something cross over from being ugly to cool?

Charlotte, by email

It's simple, Charlotte. Look at your thumb. Do you see the rules on it? You know, the one that says: "The calories you expend going to the fridge equate to the number of calories you ingest from it"? And then there's the one that says: "The time it takes for you to get over him is the time it will take for him to get over you." So many rules of thumb! Well, an oft-overlooked one, just under the bottom ridge, says: "At the point you believe it is safe to hate a style is when that style will become fashionable." This explains the current presence of high-waisted tapered jeans in the window of American Apparel, for example. And partly why American Apparel is in dire financial straits.

It takes a while for people's eyes to readjust, you see. Being cool is easy, Charlotte. But convincing other people to buy into it before your business goes bankrupt? Now that's tough.

Mischa Barton - Mischa Barton Won't Splash The Cash On Trendy Bag

Mischa Barton refuses to spend lots of money on a trendy handbag and would rather save her cash for a classic item.

Mischa Barton refuses to spend lots of money on a trendy handbag.

The actress - who has her own line of bags - says she doesn't see the point in splashing out on a "handbag-of-the moment" and would rather save her cash for a classic item.

She said: "I think handbags are a great area to work in because you can do anything with them. They can really change an outfit. You always look at girls' bags and you don't want to spend a fortune on them. You want them to be functional, have pockets and work, but you don't want it to be a piece of c**p. I don't want to spend a fortune on crazy of-the-moment handbags. If it's going to cost me like $600 to get a handbag of-the-moment then I'm probably not even going to bother to do it. I just have my classics that I like."