Admittedly, the return of fusty velvet may well fill with you with dread but, this season, it’s time for a rethink.

Velvet has thrown of its dowdy image for Autumn to become a catwalk star as it takes on a luxurious feel with generous swathes of fabric in deep jewel colours of grape, berry, teal and saphire.

Modernist designers such as Francisco Costa at Calvin Klein and Christopher Kane revitalised the fabric with glossy colour, clever splicing, and by reviving the age-old dévoré treatment, whereby acid is poured onto areas of cloth creating a sheer, pretty burnt out pattern to create strong stripes and graphics.

The most arresting looks came courtesy of Christopher Kane, who presented a series of organza shifts appliqued with jewel-coloured velvet ribbons, set in horizontal and vertical stripes. Kane partnered them with bare legs and brogues – consider that your styling cue.

While we may be enjoying an eighties renaissance, for this trend forget the frumpy shapes of the Eighties and instead, embrace fresh jewel colours. This season’s velvet is anything but frumpy. Think sleek and sumptuous cocktail dresses as seen at Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs.

It’s time to play a demure game of peek-a-boo for the new provocative way to dress is strategically sexy: discreetly revealing, transparent but not trashy.

Without a doubt, the emerging trend for Autumn/Winter ‘09 lies in the ability to slice away, with a surgeon’s skill, cut-out peek-a-boo holes. Design houses including Rick Owens, Sonia Rykiel, Jonathan Saunders, Narciso Rodriquez, and YSL all transformed cocktail dresses into avant-garde geometric ‘80s throw-backs will the help of some over-eager scissors. Rodriguez and Rykiel used cut-outs to play up the sensuality of shoulder and collar bones, succeeding in a suggestive sexuality while Saunders made use of angular cut-outs to create looks that were nothing short of arresting.

The chief protagonists thus far are  British label Preen, by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, who both pushed the cut-out concept further than any of the look’s proponents so far. At Preen the mood was a little more 1960s  than 1980s with the use of electric brights and pastels. The cut-out theme was predominantly worked into more body-con dresses patch worked with stretch tulle or cobweb lace with key pieces including leather dresses with slits below the bust, at the waist, and up and down both sides, and jackets with rib-shaped holes in the back.

While some of Preen’s pieces may not, ahem, cut it in the real world they fit perfectly into the obsession with body-consciousness and the manipulation of shape that are gripping young London designers. It’s clearly time to allow your skin tone to create the patterns, but, if you aren’t quite ready for a full on game of hide and seek, go for looks with sexy mesh and lace inserts. Indeed, why not embrace cut-out offerings waiting to play peek-a-boo with you this Winter?

This season, knitwear is no longer a support act – it’s the star turn.

Colourful, adventurous and vibrant knitwear was really celebrated at the Autumn/Winter ‘09 collections.  Be it patterned or textured, sloppy or sleek: decorative knits made a return in multiple bold guises on the runways of designers such as Matthew Williamson, Paul Smith and Mark Fast. 

The most striking pieces were witnessed at Missoni where knits were worn in multiple layers and, of course, the only chic way to wear knits this season is to load on the layers: Think patterned legwarmers over leggings, miniskirts teamed with knitted sweaters, shaggy jackets teamed with skinny leather trousers (as seen at Rodarte) all topped off with vibrant cardi-coats, knitted beanies and extra large scarves.

The bold knit looks set to be the important status piece this Autumn so imagine you’re being whisked to the Peruvian islands and be sure to keep your, ahem, knit wits about you. And don’t forget to shop for a knitted snood - Autumn/Winter’s key knitted accessory!

Tweed is a perennial fashion favourite, and Autumn/Winter ‘09 is no exception.

Yes, it’s time to think tweedy - but certainly neither twee nor traditional.Cast aside any Miss Marple connotations for this season the British country classic gets a slick urban update; tweed has become sexy, smart and tailored. Oh, and practical too. From Vivienne Westwood to Burberry Prorsum, and Gucci to Karl Lagerfeld, it comes speckled, checked and textured this Autumn.

The look is such a refreshing change from the high-octane glitz and glamour dominating this season’s runways that designers from Alexander McQueen to Donna Karan have declared tweed the perfect combination of heritage and freshness and adopted it as their new favourite winter fabric.

This season, graphic houndstooth feels cool and contemporary and offers a pleasing light relief in a season dominated by black. The focus is an adding interest to classic tailored pieces with texture, traditional patterns and subtle colours. Just remember: This season’s tweed pieces – from Luella’s sweet A-line coat, to DKNY’s refined skirt suit – are tailormade for the concrete jungle rather than country dressing.

If confirmation were needed, look no further than the distinctly urban colouring: these tweeds come in flecked salt and pepper greys only.

Be you a dynasty dame or a disco diva, it’s time to make for the return of the era of excess. Yes, it’s time to tune into the glamour of the Eighties with cocktail extravaganzas in flamboyant silks and metallics.

This season, nostaliga for the exuberant and excessive 1980s club scene has led to designers bringing us a fun Eighties flash-back from those who where there first time around to the younger generation who were mere babes when Madonna sang ‘Into the Groove.’ Fast forward to 2009 and the look is all about garish, clashing prints, shiny fabrics, and an extra helping of attitude.

Yes, designers such as Marc Jacobs, Gucci, Balmain, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana have all revived the Eighties with glamour, glitter and plenty of chutzpah. Stalking their catwalks were models in puffed out skirts, pops of pink, bold shoulders, lashings of patterned lycra and lamé, and an impressive display of swags, sequins and peplums.

Marc Jacobs clearly had a really good time in the 1980s – both his main line and Louis Vuitton collections caught disco fever and were a clear testament to the era’s glorious extravagance with lots of puffy peplum jackets, shirring and ruching, bubble skirts, and even bejeweled satin leggings.

Donatella Versace also rocked the runway in plunging bright satin dresses and heavily sequined slips.

But remember to embrace eighties excess with caution: this trend in all its lacy, flouncy, poufy glory is best suited to women who were too young to explore the decade the first time around. This is not a look for shrinking violets.

The fashion gods have spoken: This autumn, the sartorial spotlight is on the hard shoulder.

This new focus on a well-defined shoulder represents the season’s biggest shift in silhouette. Structured pieces such as coats and jackets came with architectural and austere shoulders on the Autumn/Winter runways while exaggerated puffs and pagodas emphasised the look on dresses and blouses.

If Balmain’s Christophe Decarnin ran with the trend last season, now he’s accelerated full throttle. Last season’s cult peaked-shoulder Balmain jacket was reiterated in force with the same signature shape but now manifested as leather bikers as well as sequined and jersey tuxedo jackets.

Exaggerated shoulders are now the ultimate in power dressing, from Balmain’s sharp spikes to Balenciaga’s and Isabel Marant’s softly puffed billowing sleeves. A fresh take on the look came from Roksanda Ilincic who flipped the macho attitude of the new shoulder-barging fashion on its head, with a metallic party dress whose giant cap sleeves resembled Mickey Mouseears. Betty Jackson and Todd Lynn also feminised the silhouette by bulking up the shoulders with cropped, fluffy wraps.

The hidden bonus? Whatever the scale and shape you choose; these strucutral shoulders give the illusion of a teeny-tiny waist. A fashionably cold shoulder: it doesn’t get much more next-season than that.

Elegant and sophisticated are terms not often associated with leather… Until now.

Soft, pliable and beautifully cut in feminine, luxurious and bourgeois silhouettes, leather takes on a fresh character this season.

Tough looks get a ladylike spin this season as cut like silk, leather is now delicate enough to make the transition from the bike to the boardroom. Challenging its traditionally tough image, designers from Alexander Wang to Prada showed leather in an exciting, modern and smart light mixing butter-soft leather dresses and jackets in grown-up shapes with textured fabrics like cashmere and silk for a feminine touch.

There were prim dress coats on the Autumn/Winter Louis Vuitton runway, knee-length skirt suits at Maxmara and Yves Saint Laurent that were less rock ‘n’ roll and more rive gauche, and soft ladylike leather shift dresses just about everywhere else.

If you are in fear that you run the risk of looking like a has-been rock star or a Hell’s Angel you might want to consider the most fashionable (and simplest) leather look of the season, which is, of course, a cropped, casual, fitted leather jacket. Any designer worth his or her credentials has included at least one leather jacket in their collection this season.