In the rulebooks of how to age gracefully the don’ts make a lot more noise than the dos. No leather trousers! No cleavage! No man buns! No skateboards! The list of items allegedly verboten for the over-50s is endless. Your life has been boobytrapped, one false move and the world will fall about laughing. It’s enough to make your hair go grey – oh, wait.

Here’s a better idea. Let’s talk about how to dress right for your age, rather than how to avoid getting it wrong. The list of style icons over 50 gets longer every year, and between them they are tearing up the rulebook (except the one about skateboards, sorry). Iris Apfel, White House interior designer turned fashion influencer, filled her recent capsule collection for H&M with fringed violet jacquard miniskirts and frog-shaped rhinestone earrings, and it sold out in hours. Apfel turns 101 this year.

“You have to dress for yourself before you dress for your age,” Apfel once said. Actually I think the trick is to recognise that the two are the same. Dress for the person you are now. There is no reason to cosplay as an imaginary Wise Elder version of yourself, but neither do you need to dress as the person you were 15 years ago. Look, I’m not doubting that you are still super fun at parties but let’s say – just for the sake of argument – that these days you also quite enjoy getting up early on a Saturday to walk the dog before the park gets busy. That’s who you are now and that person may find a nice pair of corduroys more useful than leather trousers. Here’s how to get it right.

Dress up, not down

When you are 22, jeans…