Welcome to Winter 2019 everyone.

It’s freezing in London, and following a blissful Balearic weekend, I realise I’m in the wrong place.

In this instalment, as well as some gossip from the National Television Awards Red Carpet, I explore the warm side of fashion as (according to the Met Office) the UK prepares itself for The Beat from The East part deux.

Watching the first snow flurry of the new year, the mind wanders to my faux fur coats upstairs, which need dry cleaning. And on the subject of fur, this week there has been some bad news to come out of one of the most popular online shopping emporiums.

Boohoo has been crit­i­cized by UK watch­dog, the Ad­ver­tis­ing Stan­dards Au­thor­ity, for flout­ing some reg­u­la­tions, upsetting many in the process. The ASA in­dicted the on­line re­tailer for mar­ket­ing a pom­pom jumper as ‘faux’ when it was, in fact, real – most likely rab­bit – fur. That’s not just mis­lead­ing, it’s also deeply up­set­ting.

An­i­mal wel­fare char­ity, Hu­man So­ci­ety In­ter­na­tional, pur­chased the prod­uct and sent sam­ples to an in­de­pen­dent lab­o­ra­tory for test­ing and the HSI con­firmed the Boohoo jumper con­tained an­i­mal hair.

In re­sponse, Boohoo said, ‘We have a strong com­mit­ment against the sale of real fur in any of our prod­ucts. We have ro­bust poli­cies and pro­ce­dures in place to en­sure that we are able to ad­here to this. Fol­low­ing the in­quiry by HSI the item has been re­moved from sale. We con­tinue to in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter in­ter­nally and with the sup­plier in ques­tion, as a mat­ter of pri­or­ity.’

Last year, the HIS in­ves­ti­gated a high street wide prob­lem of cus­tomers un­wit­tingly be­ing sold an­i­mal fur de­spite the prod­ucts be­ing ad­ver­tised as syn­thetic. Ama­zon, Groupon and TK Maxx were all caught sell­ing real fur, plus House of Fraser and Miss­guided were also guilty of the same mistake.

So, however bloody freezing it might be, please check (and use your common sense) before you purchase anything fur related.

Last weekend was spent in the Balearics, where the temperature was a moderate 14 degrees, some 10 degrees warmer than the UK.  I could shed a few layers and stick with a more “autumnal” incarnation of the Mediterranean ‘boho’ look. Back in London, I am sat in my office wearing a Toppers tracksuit, a parker, a cashmere scarf and a knee length pair off chocolate brown Uggs. Mmmmm…. not quite ON trend, you may proclaim.

But Uggs are officially back. Plus, Mossy and Ri­hanna have given their seal of ap­proval to the cosiest (and occasionally costliest) of footwear.

Rhianna ar­rived at JFK air­port in New York this week wear­ing a pair of  “original” classic camel-coloured Uggs – which I have always loved.There is no deny­ing that this sheep­skin bootie is ready to take on the most frigid of 2019 winter en­vi­ron­ments.

First, it was Birken­stocks, then it was a Dior sad­dle bag and now it’s a pair of tan Uggs to make a return to high fashion.

Though aes­thet­i­cally po­lar­iz­ing, no one can deny that the Ugg fits neatly in with the trend of resur­fac­ing fash­ion from the early 2000s.

Uggs are the quin­tes­sen­tial vic­tim of their own suc­cess. First time around, they were so pop­u­lar that they be­came ubiq­ui­tous, worn by every­one from mums on the school run to style icons. It was death by over­ex­po­sure. But fash­ion de­lights in sub­ver­sion, in cham­pi­oning the least trendy thing it can grab hold of, and with mass ‘ca­su­al­i­sa­tion’ sweep­ing through the in­dus­try (how else do you ex­plain the rise of ath­leisure and the demise of ties and of­fice dress codes?) this Australian shoe style has never felt more ap­pro­pri­ate. Es­pe­cially bru­tal weather fronts are threat­en­ing.

Yes, they’re unflattering but if you style them up with skinny jeans, blazer and skinny scarf, you’re not only on trend, but cosy and comfy too.

If you’ve had enough of your winter scarf, gloves and jumpers. If you can take no more of accessorising every outfit with a pair of thermal tights or dressing down in snug trackies (like me, which my other half HATES), then welcome to these upcoming trends for Spring 2019. Start planning now.

The way the fashion industry functions, designers show their collections months before they hit the shops. So, we already know what we’ll be wearing in spring 2019.

At the recent London, Paris and New York Fashion Weeks, the biggest looks were baby blue, clashing prints and the pink tuxedo – which I absolutely adore. And just in time for our Balearic holidays – tie dye.

Baby blue

Last spring’s pastel of choice was lavender, but this time around its a flattering baby blue shade.

Alice + Olivia came out on top with their New York Fashion Week show, mixing baby blue and white with prints.

Elsewhere, Givenchy teamed the trend with another spring 2019 fashion staple – ruched fabrics.

And whilst the colour was mostly spotted on dresses on the runway, fashion houses weren’t afraid to experiment with floaty blouses and skirts.

As seen at: Alice + Olivia, Marc Jacobs, Ph5, Givenchy, Alexa Chung, Roland Mouret, Rejina Pyo.

Clashing prints

I can forgive you for hating this trend, as clashing prints like spots and stripes aren’t for everyone.

Dolce & Gabbana and Versace’s looks would probably raise a few eyebrows down the high street, due to their bold colours and out-there accessories but I love them.

Diane von Furstenberg and Self-Portrait show how to work the trend in everyday life, with more subtle colour combinations.

As seen at: Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, Paco Rabanne, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera, Self-Portrait and Diane von Furstenberg.

Pink tuxedos

It looks like the evening dress has a new rival for spring 2019 – the pink tuxedo. This is a personal Fave as I am very partial to a Tux.

I like pastel pinks and shocking pink but combined with this super tailored look, pink was extremely popular on the catwalks.

It’s also one of the season’s most wearable outfits, with Gabriela Hearst and Boss’s flattering suits standing out with their delicate blush tones.

As seen at: Escada, Sies Marjan, Gabriela Hearst, Emporio Armani, Gucci, Balenciaga, Roksanda, Peter Pilotto and Boss.

Tie dye

Forget the hippy market ‘Tie dye’, 2019 Tie Dye is popping up on the feeds of our favourite Instagram influencers and in loads of high street stores.

And in 2019 you will once again be able to hark back to your childhood days of bleaching T-shirts in your back garden.

MSGM provided one of the best tie dye looks, pairing a dreamy pink sweater with a matching ruched skirt.

Calvin Klein mixed and matched their hippy prints, whilst Christian Dior went for the kaleidoscopic approach.

As seen at: Calvin Klein, No. 21, Prada, MSGM, Prabal Gurung, R13, Christian Dior and Stella McCartney.