Style secrets: The insider's guide to six little tricks of the trade

Sometimes fashion is all air kissing, champers and glamour. At other times it's a lot of hard work. And sometimes it might politely be described as smoke and mirrors. Here are some realities behind those magic tricks in fashion.

1. There are no rules. Find your own style.

Easily said, but not so easily done - especially when your style mostly involves a lot of tracky daks and a $20 budget. It's all very well for Hollywood celebrities and prepubescent pop stars. They simply employ a stylist - someone who knows every hip young designer and vintage store in the city.

As for so-called rules, there are some that will always be worth obeying. Most have to do with dressing for your body shape. For instance, wear clothes that fit - neither too tight nor too loose and . never make a line (with clothes) across your widest part.

On the other hand there are some rules that are outdated including those that tell you never to wear navy with black, or pink with red. There is no longer one look that everyone wears just because some fashion house in Paris told them to - fashion is much more "niche". And, outside ome general trends, you get to choose which niche you wish to inhabit.

2. You can wear whatever you like as long as you wear it with confidence.

This is a delightful sentiment and one that many a fashion writer is fond of expressing. To an extent it's also true. If you're wearing something slightly more outrageous than usual, striding about like you own the place helps to carry the look off. However, if you're wearing something that doesn't suit you and never will - that means you, drag queen look-a-like with the big feathery hat, the blue eye shadow and spangly mini - then sorry but it's never going to make for a pretty sight, no matter how confident you happen to be.

3. Fashion models make every woman feel fatter and older.

There is a simple explanation for this: they are. While looking at all the lovely high-fashion pages, bear in mind most of the models are Amazons aged between 14 and 21, even the ones that have been made up to look like they're 30. A lot are naturally thin - partially youth, partially good genes - and they make up a very small percentage of the population. Fashion editors choose to hang clothes on them because that's what they are: great clothes hangers.

The other part of the explanation involves a cunning computer program called Photoshop. This allows blemishes to be erased, arms and legs to be thinned and figures elongated and, once you know how, even the most computer illiterate individual can carry out this process. So just imagine what an experienced magazine art director can do.

It's all about aspirations and fantasies and the fear of not looking like everyone else. A lot of it isn't real - you probably won't recognise the whey-faced teen walking past in her school uniform as a model.

4. Always a size 10

No, you're not. Because one designer's size 10 is another designer's size 12. Or eight. Chain stores and mainstream fashion labels make their size 10 dresses slightly bigger. The average New Zealand woman is somewhere between size 14 and 16. Designers who export to Europe or Asia (where women are smaller) or cater for a younger market will cut their cloth from smaller blocks.

5. The must have.

Some folks have the inclination - and the budget - to buy every season's Must Have. The rest of us can probably live without them. Often the Must Haves just have a better idea of the biggest trends for that season. Remember that there's always another season and another bunch of Must Haves only months away.

6. Trade Me is the best place for vintage or designer bargains.

Only if you spend a lot of time online. Most vintage and designer items now go for what they're worth and to get a bargain, you'll need to keep an eye on the website - or visit a good second-hand store.