Long looks

She was, it's said, the inspiration for a television show; now she has a new radio station. Lynne Franks, post-Eighties, post-PR, and post-mid-life crisis, is back with Viva! 963, as 'moral guardian' of the enterprise, and with her own twice-weekly show. For the truly stylish, the long dress has replaced the little black number - still in black to play safe, or in limes and pinks for more attention

Twenty years ago, long dresses were required attire - you couldn't turn up for a wine and cheese party without wearing one. Then the kind of parties at which cubes of cheddar and pineapple on sticks were passed around disappeared. The long dress went with them.

Cheddar and pineapple has been replaced, probably for ever, by mozzarella and spinach in filo pastry, shrimps in Thai sauce, satay and the like. But the long dress has made a quiet comeback. In place of the little black dress, the truly sophisticated are turning up to the sleekest of soirees in the long black version, worn so it just skims the floor when wearing strappy high heels. The dresses here are by major designers with their sights set on dressing movie stars, which means they are unaffordable to most. If you are stylish and clever, you will go to Whistles, Jaeger or Oasis for a version of the simple, long dress that will not leave you bankrupt.

Black is the most reliable option for it is slimming and safe, which many women are grateful of when they have to step out of daywear and into something for night. But those intending to wear long dresses to the kind of celeb-fests where the papparazzi lurch should opt for this summer's sweetie pastels.

Turn up in a slither of silk jersey or satin and obligatory sunglasses (who says they look stupid at night?) and you're bound to have the crowd chanting "who's that girl?"...unless, of course, one of those damn rent- a-crowd supermodels sails up in something even more sultry right behind you