DIY: maybe not for me...

Vivienne Westwood does it all the time to perfection, but with novice seamstress skills, turning a shower curtain into a wearable party dress might not be the best idea...

With the credit crunch, DIY fashion is the new craze.

It is true that, to some extent CIY (Craft it Yourself) does work – adding a few feathers and buttons to a plain black cotton t-shirt can sometimes give you a cool Art Student, edgy, Agyness Deyn-like style.

But most of the time DIY looks a little too much... well, DIY.

Also, the style does not particularly fit the party season: it only works for you if you already have that 'I can pull of anything, I could not care less' kind of look.

It is also time consuming: for non-expert hands, giving that dusty LBD a makeover could well take up until Christmas.

At least...

Other options

For those who, like me, prefer well-cut numbers with a DIY touch and a reassuring label. It might be worth considering the high street stores.

I am not talking about poor, sequined, runway-imitations. There are some luxurious party dresses that cost less than £70.

A Zara lace dress, very close to the Prada collection, has a smile-inducing price tag of £49. And you can get a Giambattista Valli-inspired, red ruffled cocktail dress, for only £55 from Next.

If you think about all the five pound notes used to buy textiles, ribbons and buttons, the plain cotton black dress that probably cost £20 and the lost hours fighting a stubborn sewing machine, maybe fighting a crowd in Central London might not be that bad after all.

The DIY Way

Some girls just always look impeccably stylish, even when they are on the budget of a student or a tramp.

It seems to defy all reason: you cannot look like a page ripped out of Vogue when you have less than £10 a week to spend on clothes. Or can you?

In truth, it's not all that unachievable.

Vivienne Westwood created the look in the 70s and it's not about to go out of fashion. Punk might be dead but DIY isn't.

Agyness Deyn does it amazingly well. She has a list of fashion designers who are dying to dress her for free and yet she still wears tee-shirts and old jeans (that are probably not that old, but they look suitable worn) and barely any makeup.

A bit like any student out there. But she does it well: the trick is that she know what to team with what, and most importantly, she knows her style.

So, where does that leave us?

Charity shops are a great start. It might be a bit of a chore to go through everything but most of the time it's worth it.

Another good alternative is to pick up on what Westwood was doing herself in the Punk era: take old clothes, rip them to pieces and patch them back up. You're sure no one will have the same.

And last advice: layer. It won't show that your top is cheaply cut if it's cleverly half-hidden by a thin quirky jumper; or kept into place by a large belt.

It's all down to interpretation and resourcefulness.