Ready to Wear: Some people are natural fashion plates – but the rest of us are not

Victoria Beckham was once rarely seen without a baseball cap jammed on

Sometimes people get fashion-ed – and it's not always for the best. It happened to Princess Diana: I preferred her in a pie-crust collar and Laura Ashley skirt but the structure and allure of a big designer name transformed her into a different and much more knowing creature. It's happened too to Victoria Beckham, who was formerly rarely seen without a baseball cap jammed on her head like Bart Simpson but is now uptight in appearance to the point of wooden in her own, and other suitably august people's, clothes.

I, personally, admit to a certain cowardice where grand fashion statements are concerned. I know what I like. I like what I wear. And I stick with it. Almost to the point of boring everyone around me senseless but, hopefully, without losing any natural sense of style – or indeed lack of it. Whatever it is, it's my own.

And that is the point. Some of us are natural fashion plates, and the rest of us – maybe sadly – are not. And the worst, and least fashionable, thing in the world is when anyone, male or female, looks like they're trying too hard. Their clothes may be too tight – a fatal giveaway – they may be too big – in a "look at me, I'm experimenting with radical volume" kind of a way – they may be too bright or too bold. All of this, unless sported in an apparently laissez-faire manner, is cause for concern.

Then, there are the women and men of this world who were born to wear serious fashion. These are the enviable souls who can put together a total and fashionable look, moving freely in their choice of interesting garb as if it were as basic as a simple black T-shirt and pair of jeans. I like to think they work their wardrobe from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed at night. Even their pyjamas (new season Prada?) are extraordinary, I'm sure.

Stating the obvious: often, these people are stylists. It makes no difference whether they are young or old, big or small, there's a reason they're paid to do what they do. The less sartorially gifted, meanwhile, would do well to stick to what they are comfortable wearing and, above all, be themselves. That, in the end, is of prime importance.