Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: wear any shade this autumn – just as long as it’s white

Instead of the seasonal norm of crimson, brown and green, try brightening things up with loose layers in varying shades of white

This may seem like the wrong time of year to extol the virtues of wearing white. White jeans, surely, belong within the same date bracket as straw baskets. A white vest or T-shirt looks at its best when you are sunkissed. We are now at the hinge of the seasons, and autumn clothes, as a rule, celebrate the colours around us as the seasons turn: the russet of the leaves underfoot, the rich chocolate of your first mocha of the season. That is how it’s supposed to work, right?

But the reality isn’t as glowy and lovely as all that. I mean, we could dress in brown to match the puddles in the gutter, with crimson highlights to pick out our rosacea, and a flash of nutmeg to nod to the lurid vats of pumpkin spice latte that are unavoidable over the next month. But when you put it like that, it doesn’t fill the heart with seasonal joy.