Wearing vintage is a great option for summer, as your whole look can be pulled together with the help of inexpensive retro accessories.

You don’t need a truly authentic dress or a scene-stealing circular skirt if you just want to subtly reference the style icons of the fabulous 1950s. Think of Grace Kelly in High Society with her pretty flower-trimmed hats, pastel handbags and statement sunglasses, or Elizabeth Taylor in a slip paired with stilettos in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Audrey Hepburn, always admired for her signature style, looked wonderful in the latter part of that decade in the film Roman Holiday. Vintage cinema posters for the movie show her zipping around the streets of Rome with the dashing Gregory Peck, wearing a cute button-up blouse, cheeky bandana and ballet pumps, on the back of an iconic Vespa scooter.

Whether you favour the innocence and freshness of Audrey and Grace or the vamped-up glamour of Taylor and her blonde counterpart Marilyn Monroe, it’s easy to reproduce the looks.

Slip dresses are on trend this year for those who are lucky enough not to have too many lumps and bumps. By the very nature of the fact that they are based upon an item of underwear, they can be rather unforgiving! It isn’t really the time of year when we want to be trussed up in close-fitting control garments but, wearing another slip underneath your slip dress can help to smooth out your contours.

Put on a pair of cute strappy sandals with a kitten heel, or a pair of 1950s style-sling backs accompanied by glamorous cats-eye sunglasses, and you will instantly perfect the retro look.

Original sunglasses, which are often available in vintage stores, come in all sorts of jazzy colours, often with snazzy diamante trim. Just make sure they are dark enough to really shield your eyes, or you may also need to invest in an additional modern pair if you are going out in strong sunshine. It is important to protect yourself from damaging UV rays.

Add a wide-brimmed saucer-shaped, raffia sunhat with a statement scarf tied around the crown and you really will be a siren on the shore. If you can’t find the perfect hat, simply pick up a plain one and decorate it at home with things you already have in the sewing box or haberdashery drawer. This is what I recently did to make a hat resembling those of the young Queen Elizabeth, when we celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.

For a more relaxed 1970s look, go for the style of hippy songstresses Carole King and Carly Simon with floppy brimmed sunhats, perhaps in coloured straw or canvas, and with an added flower decoration in a Biba colour like inky blue or dusty pink. This style looks great with loose flowing hair, a tiered floral skirt and ethnic-style flat sandals. A vintage Victorian broderie anglaise camisole or peasant top from a vintage store would look great with this and should be beautifully cool too.

If you really want to go for full 1970s chic, why not channel the super-sophisticated style of Margot from the iconic 1970s sitcom The Good Life, or Little Edie from the cult movie Grey Gardens. Protect your hair from the heat of the sun in a colourful turban, don a full-length floaty kaftan and pop on a pair of over-sized, oval-shaped white framed sunglasses, then waft around your garden with a glass of Mateus Rosé in hand.

Have a simply sizzling summer!