As I type, yet another email has landed alerting me to skyrocketing sales of loungewear in the wake of the spread of the new coronavirus variant. I get it, of course – faced with yet another hunkered-down festive season, a perfectly natural response is to reach for the PJs and slipper socks.

But when that might be our fate well into the new year, I urge you to be a little more imaginative this Twixmas and make a modicum of effort to feel special, but in a cosy, comfortable kind of way. You could call it casual-luxe, and in an era of leggings and tracksuits, it’s becoming a rare art form.

Whether your casual-luxe look needs to work for making yet another vat of mulled wine or going for a long country walk, the principles are similar. 

Search out soothing colours and textures with the subtlest hint of festive cheer about them – corduroys, brushed cottons and soft knits in Fair Isles, tartans or rich shades of berry, pine or ochre will work beautifully.