There are fashion rules that are sensible and whose logic is self-evident: don't turn up at someone else's wedding in a long white dress, or to a job interview in clothes you'd watch daytime TV in; don't expose legs and cleavage at the same time, unless you have a thick skin and a fly swat in your pocket. And there are the arcane, no-brown-in-town rules, about not taking a shoulder bag to an evening event (should be a clutch), or not wearing matching earrings and necklace (looks a bit, well, if I say the word Teasmade, do you get my drift?).
Then there are the rules that change every season, which are the hardest to keep up with and therefore the most important to get right. Break one of the eternal rules, and you can style it out as a rebel; go against one of fashion's current whims, and you just look clueless.
Until a few months ago, one of those rules was that you shouldn't wear bright colours with black. A bright colour with black looked a bit brash, a bit obvious – the style equivalent of exclamation marks at the end of sentences, to make them sound exciting! – which sounds tortuous, but then, to an extent, the point of fashion is to project the message: Modern Life Is Complicated And I Get It.
Anyway. Now, you can wear black with colour. Indeed, you should. It's sort of retro, but in a good way that now looks contemporary. Which is complicated, I know; but I also know, of course, that you get it.
• Jess wears blouse from a selection, by Viktor & Rolf. Trousers £250, by Jaeger. Shoes £150, by Carvela, from Kurt Geiger.
Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Hair and make-up: Charlotte Lowes at Mandy Coakley.
