I decided on these more angled frames as I thought they looked quite glamorous and film-starry.”Ben, 29, scenic artistWears purple tinted glasses, pounds 109, Cutler & Gross, 16 Knightsbridge Green, Knightsbridge, London SW1 (tel: 0171 581 2250).”I prefer glasses with silver frames because I think they look quite Seventies.”Zoe, 18 months, full-time babyWears red frames, pounds 109, Cutler & Gross, 16 Knightsbridge Green, Knightsbridge, London SW1 (tel: 0171 581 2250).Zoe is too young as yet to comment on her choice We think she looks great, though.I must make a confession. I think the new Chloe sunglasses are vile, despite everyone telling me they are the latest cool thing No. They might have trendy Seventies gradient lenses and a diamante heart in one corner but to me they look like remainders from the QVC shopping channel. They are almost as bad as those yellow tinted glasses that make you look as though you have liver disease.The only glasses to wear this summer are Calvin Klein’s elongated aviators (style no: 255S). They are classy and the metal frames come in five colours – black, silver, dark gold, bronze and gold – with toning lenses and they are very, very cool. And I’ll let you into a secret – some of the fashion folk telling you to buy Chloe have ordered the Calvin Klein’s for themselves, the sneaky puppets.For this week’s shoot we herded up some perfectly lovely normal people, sat them in front of hundreds of pairs of glasses and let them pick whichever ones they wanted to wear. You’ll see that sanity still rules in the UK because not one of them picked a Chloe pair.Doris, 32, full-time mother to ZoeWears tortoiseshell oval frames, pounds 175, Paul Smith Accessories, 43 Floral Street, Covent Garden WC2 (tel: 0171 379 7133).”I usually go for brown, rather than black.

I liked these as the shape is quite different.”John, 31, sound engineerWears black square glasses, pounds 150, Kirk Originals, 36 Earlham Street, London WC2 (tel: 0171 240 5055).”I didn’t choose to wear these – you made me do it. No, really, I thought they were big and stupid.”Fred, 32, publicanWears black plastic frames, 50p, from a charity shop.”I’ve chosen to wear my own sunglasses. I bought them from a charity shop because they have a Playboy bunny on them and I quite fancy myself as a bit of a stud.”Mel, 27, PR consultantWears bronze metal frames, pounds 85, CK, Dolland & Aitchison nationwide (tel: 0800 722020).”I like the Seventies aviator porn-star shape. I’ve got a bit of a Val Kilmer pilot fetish.”Cath, 27, art directorWears olive tinted glasses pounds 179, Paul Smith, 43 Floral Street, London WC2 (tel: 0171 379 7133).”These frames are quite feminine, and I could wear them all the time because the lenses are quite lightly tinted. They make me look quite different.”Ed, 33, graphic designerWears black sunglasses with dragon arms, pounds 150, Jean Paul Gaultier (tel: 0171 978 1888).”I like these glasses because they go with the look I’ve got going on at the moment. I’m having my hair cut tomorrow though, so they probably won’t suit me after today.”. Sometimes you get the feeling fashion is only for the kind of women who ovulate Faberge eggs.

When a pair of faded and ripped jeans costs pounds 1,910 at Gucci, even Style Police starts to come over all Communist. It’s verging on immoral to spend that kind of cash on cotton – most of us don’t even have an annual holiday as expensive. Trying to compete with fashion’s cash cows is like asking Prince Nazeem if he wants to make something of it

Denim’s definitely had a facelift this season. When Chanel introduces a cropped denim jacket into its spring/summer ’99 collection, it only means one thing: the Phantom Menace of high fashion is pick-pocketing from the street once again. Street style strikes back by resurrecting a vintage piece of denim and makes it the people’s cool choice.
The catwalk is peddling pristine, deep-dye indigo denim for spring. Designers from Daryl K to YSL are reinventing the denim jacket with Velcro panels and – brace yourself – a zip instead of the usual buttons.

If it’s distressed denim like Gucci’s, then you’ve got to bead it, feather it or spatter it with sequins. Platinum Amex designer denim exists only in the virtual reality world of glossy mags.The street, meanwhile, has chosen the classic faded Wrangler crop denim jacket. That jacket is living it loud this season and it’s looking cool as a frozen Vodkatini. We’ve got Madonna “our lady of immaculate timing” to thank, for wearing a knackered denim crop while shaking her booty in the Ray of Light video. Her scuffed-up Levi’s jacket took the edge of prettiness off her sequin Chloe hipsters. It taught us how to tone down.The crop jacket is totally on message with proportion this season It roughs up the chiffon Forties frocks It has that Fifties preppy feeling when worn with pedals.

It works with the rustic Liberty print smocks and balances all that neon. In short, the faded denim crop-cut jacket is the most welcome return since Prohibition was repealed.How to wear itYou know you are on to a genuine street-style quake when you see scads of people put it together identically. For the seriously loaded, a fashion doppelganger would be as welcome a sight as Banquo’s ghost. But on the street, you give your fashion twin the up-down glance and tacitly nod. Style Police did a double take when we saw the faded Wrangler jacket, black satin-finish stretch jeans, a white T, open-toe black sandals and a hip holster bag four times in one day It felt like marking an entire class of A-grade students.