Pink is officially in: sales of rosé have overtaken white wine in France - and they are up here, too. What, you may ask, does wine have to do with fashion? Usually very little, but by a force of bacchanalian nature, this season their worlds have collided. As the rose-tinted tipple soars in popularity on Anglo and Gallic shores, pale pink has been thrust into the spotlight on the style stage. Pale is back, and this time it's interesting.

Diaphanous dresses the colour of white skin have graced the back of every Hollywood actress en route to a premiere this summer. Cate Blanchett wore pink Armani Privé frills at Cannes, and Sarah Jessica Parker was nude - sartorially speaking - in Versace couture at the Sex and the City premiere in Berlin. Both are examples of women in their forties who resist the lure of the LA fake tan: they're happy in their skin, and they're happy in dresses the colour of it, too.

Pale pink is arguably easier to espouse when you have buckets of money to throw at designer clothes and an army of well- trained stylists and make-up artists who make otherwise flat skin miraculously glow. With the aid of a decent cream blusher, however, putty shades can also work for you. Post-modern romantic, which means fewer frills, harder lines, plenty of nude shades and nothing to do with Adam Ant, is a credible option in the workplace if it is suitably well-structured. This is less Cinderella at Prince Charming's ball and more female professional with a keen eye for femininity.

Keep one element of your outfit sharp - a crisply-pressed pair of trousers or a slimline jacket - and then loosen the shackles with the remaining pieces. Chiffon and silk are ideal fabrics: they are romantic in feel and come in interesting textures and shapes. And don't forget to think outside the box: pink can work on the bottom half too, as Vanessa Bruno's silk trousers testify. Now, who said romance was dead?

Photographs: Zac Frackleton, stylist: Eve Thomas, hair and make-up: Katie Pettigrew at Lavinia Hughes using Paul Mitchell and Estee Lauder, model: Zilke at Storm.

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