How to be cool and pick up a bit of fluff

LACE, lurex, sequins, satin just like reaching the bottom of the Quality Street tin on Boxing Day, the glut of sweetie-wrapper glitz consumed during the run-up to Christmas can leave you with a craving for something a little less sugary. Cosying up in an old jumper and track pants - the fashion equivalent of dry bread and water - might be fine for those few days when nothing and nobody is going to get you off the sofa. But what to wear when you eventually have to face the world and, perhaps more dauntingly, the in-laws?

A little bit dressy, a little bit dress-down, corduroy fits the festive relapse period to a tee. A once much-maligned fabric and the stuff of dowdy bad taste (geography teachers' patched jackets, early Seventies purple loon pants - you know the kind of thing), corduroy has had a cool revival of late.

In a year where the denim factor in most people's wardrobes reached saturation point, corduroy became the most natural alternative. Can't face another pair of ultra low-rise, bootcut jeans or yet another cut-off denim mini?

What about the exact same style run up in baby-pink needle cord? Well, that's a different matter entirely. I'll take two of each, thank you very much.

Hip Los Angeles jeans label, Juicy Couture, cottoned on to cord's potential as a spin-off from denim as early as July. Its all-out campaign to win over the top end of the jeans market here (think Kate Moss sizing and Harvey Nichols price tags) was undoubtedly won not just with its dirty denim hipsters, but with its fabulous corduroy jeans, too, which come in delectable colours such as russet, burned orange, burgundy and mint. They're all but sold out now, but expect more to come next month as the spring collections filter in.

Hard as it might be to avoid at this time of year, try not to do too much lolling around on the floor in your nice new cord ensemble. For some reason, corduroy has an amazing ability to attract all sorts of dust and fluff. If you're trying to impress the in-laws, best pack a clothes brush. These things matter, you know.

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