7. Be a shoe buff

Editor and journalist Harriet Quick has undertaken the colossal task of plucking the very best from a century of shoes in British Vogue. With signature precision, owing to her experience contributing to The Wall Street Journal, Love, Wallpaper and British Vogue, she’s compiled a tome that reminds the reader of the power our footwear carries. “Shoes are a cipher of our times,” says Quick. “Whether it is a Louis heel shot by de Meyer in 1920 when rising skirt lengths first allowed a show-off shoe, or a strappy tasselled style designed by Yves Saint Laurent and imaged by Guy Bourdin in 1977 on a trio of beauties on the Hôtel de Crillon terrace.” When you consider an outfit can be entirely re-categorised based on the footwear it is paired with, Quick’s book is worth studying with relish. “One puts on a shoe with denim or a tux or an LBD and you are out of the door.” What to buy for your next soirée? Quick points to the decadently embellished stiletto, velvet platforms or brocade boots. “The mood is opulent,” she says.