hippy shake

'So, let me get this straight: you're floating around in a 1970's outfit....nonchalantly swinging your new watering can while thinking about going blackberrying.....while congratulating yourself on [almost] doing almost a full-day's work,' writes J one of my closest friends - and an old fashion magazine colleague - in London.

J has been reading my 'status updates' on Facebook [yes, yes, I am tragically addicted and yes, I do have far too much time on my hands.] For those of you not familiar with Facebook, 'status updates' allow you to see what your friends are doing at any given moment - watching the TV, reading the new Ikea catalogue, running along the beach with the breeze in their hair and so on.

It might sound tedious but it is tragically and inexplicably addictive.

So too is www.style.com, where I have been monitoring the new spring '08 fashion shows in London and New York. From this I note that a 1970's resurgence is on the cards for next summer. The 1970's of course, looms almost permanently on the fashion horizon. But early signs suggest that this is a full hippy shakedown - with tie-dye, cheesecloth, floppy hats, crimped hair and even jumpsuits all poised for a comeback.

Jumpsuits aside, I find this all very thrilling. Secretly, I have always been a bit of a hippy or what the French call BoBo [bourgeois bohemian] at heart. The flowerchild thing is much easier to pull off in the French countryside than the streets of West London [and barefoot-in-a-field definitely works much better here than high heels in a field, as I discovered earlier this year when I wobbled off my Prada wedges in a friend's vegetable patch].

On Saturday, spurred on by the sudden arrival of the French summer, I finally test drove the blue paisley print smock that I bought in a moment of madness in London in the spring. The outing was unexpectedly successful. 'You look very summery,' said Travis, when I picked him up at the station [ which I counted as a compliment since normally he suggests that I go on a diet].

So I am all set. Patchwork? Long ropes of beads? Stevie Nicks ruffled skirts? Bring them on! I am even, dare I say it, looking forward to the reappearance of the Jesus sandal. Someone, somewhere must be planning a jewelled version.