Speaking personally, buying a coat is the closest clothes shopping comes to a chore. As indulgencies go, this one is freighted with responsibility. Coats get worn a lot. So it seems sensible to avoid the novelty factor. Coats need to keep out the cold. Thus it seems sensible to buy something warm. These are serious times and while the prevailing atmosphere may possibly, conceivably, perhaps be improving a little, it seems sensible not to yield to frivolity.

And yet for these very reasons, a coat should, ideally, be something you fall in love with. You and it will be spending a lot of time together. So approach this match with scientific empiricism. Research current trends (belted, textured, military undertones, animal prints, shades of camel, berry colours, crombies, parkas and duffels are all in there), but more importantly make a list of the three key features that make a coat work for you.

The first of these is length: if you wear skirts often, you need a coat that is either no more than 5cm shorter than your skirt, or so much shorter that it becomes a chic three-quarter coat (NB, unless you’re Erin O’Connor, no one needs a coat that’s longer than 4cm below the knee — it’s bulky and frumpy). Shape is also key: A-lines are good for pears, belted for curvy women, dressing-gown coats work for bigger women. Finally, the fun bit starts with colour. Whichever shade makes you look amazing, regardless of what’s in vogue this season, is the one for you.

Multimedia

• Pictures: This season's dreamcoats

The A-Z of winter style rules

The Times fashion team lays down the law on the season’s latest trends, from bare legs to hair colour and coat lengths

BACKGROUND

• Live fashion Q&A: how to wear the latest trends to work

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• How to wear winter trends

• Live fashion chat: what to buy now for Autumn/Winter

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• Clothing solutions to give summer looks winter life

• Designers' autumn fashion picks

• The ten anti-trends for winter

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