I remember losing sleep over things I wanted to buy; that doesn't happen any more and I miss the rush. Will it ever return?

The start of our personal style odyssey normally coincides with the start of our earning power: unless you’re an overindulged tiger cub who gets what they want based on pointing at it. Even they are on the wane: forget about the money, think about the life skills.

You got us talking, at frockadvisor HQ about those gut-wrenching moments of unbridled fashion lust. The pieces we simply had to own because not owning them was turning us into insomniacs. That feeling seemed to have been directly related to our inexperience, enthusiasm and lack of supporting funds.

Oh, that marathon journey, pay-cheque through pay-cheque, to take ownership of the prize, with multiple pre-purchase visitations to size up the quarry. It was the exquisite deferred gratification, always good for sharpening the mind, that heightened the chase and the wanting.

In our fashion-birth phase, most purchases are based on animal lust. Thoughts of investment and endurance have not entered our minds or, if they have, they are wildly misguided.

Our purpose is to excite ourselves with extremes. The problem that you’re experiencing is that you are no longer in that birth phase. You have moved onto your style-development phase or even beyond into your style-replenishment phase, where really it’s just about restocking the store cupboard. One can see how that could get boring.

If you want to revisit those fashion butterflies, shop with youthful eyes, think about not what you already have, but pieces that you dismiss as “out of your league”. Imagine a handbag or a pair of shoes by a designer you love and admire but never consider due to price. Then pick up or try on. If you get that giddy feeling, you could be onto something. We’re not suggesting that you blow the budget there and then. There isn’t a self-respecting retailer who won’t accept a deposit. Cut out the pedestrian purchases that don’t make you feel richer and probably amount to the same total, and lurch pay-cheque by pay-cheque towards a real prize. If, along the journey, it enters your dreams you know you’ve chosen well.

This business about the wide-leg trouser, is it a tall-bird-only zone?

The wide-leg trouser is a big deal for spring 2014 and one that, when worn with care, can be more democratic than you might think. What needs to be considered is the height of the waist (or rise); the higher it is the longer your leg will look, this also creates balance between the definition of the waist and the volume of the trousers.

Very wide-leg trousers are for the Amazonian among us, but nothing says you have to take it to the max. The fall of the fabric has an important role to play, if it is swishy like the beautiful silk trousers by Erdem at Harvey Nichols, you are not adding bulk.

All of these elements are factors in how flattering the trousers look on your body, something that you need to mindful of if you don’t have everlasting legs.

When worn high-waisted, wide-leg trousers dovetail nicely with cropped tops and jackets. We can hear you shuddering at the mere mention of “crop”. But the point is to create balance and, as ever, accentuate the waist.

Despite a spate of celebrity nymphs promoting this activity, we're not suggesting that you reveal torso, just your waistline.

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