The Style Maven: silk scarves

When I was a teenager an American friend of my mum's related an anecdote about being invited to a house in Italy and realising too late that she was arriving at an aristocratic pile.

'I mean, I wasn't even wearing my Hermès scarf!' she exclaimed, mortified.

My mum and I shook our heads with the shared shame of it, although I don't think either of us knew what she was on about.

Silk scarf as status symbol didn't make sense to me then. In my experience only old ladies wore silk scarves. But it was the 1980s and everything was becoming a status symbol.

I met a girl who'd done work experience at Vogue. She had a tan and a chain-print scarf tied around her head. Gucci, she said. Fancy, I thought.

Just as I was starting to appreciate how chic the silk square could be, along came the pashmina. Even if you never wore one (and so what if I did once?) the pashmina set the standard for scarf sizes to come, those soft, plain, bobbly things giving way, thanks to digital printing, to outsize works of Technicolor art to drape about the neck. Buy two and you've got yourself a pair of floor-to-ceiling curtains.

But it was much smaller, satin organza scarves in plain colours that made a striking appearance at Christian Dior this season. Four out of the first five looks were accessorised with austerely sexy neckerchiefs, a far cry from the voluminous pash.

They're a brilliantly in-the-know way to update a tuxedo or an LBB, although in a world still smothered in digi-print it's tricky to find the plain colours at a non-Dior price.

Cos - that refuge for the high-street minimalist - is your best bet.

If something less Helmut Newton is to your taste, you will of course send yourself to Liberty's glorious scarf room or its online version ( liberty.co.uk ). From this week it has competition, as Harrods is opening a brand-new scarf room.

Take your pick, and when not wearing it round the neck do make sure to tie it to your handbag. That way you'll never be caught short in an aristo-crisis.

Three of the best silk scarves

L-R: Tiger motif, £90, by Kenzo, from Liberty ( liberty.co.uk ), apricot, £55, by Cos ( cosstores.com ), Echec au Roi, £280, by Hermès ( hermes.com ).

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