You will have gathered by now that the fashionable way to wear your coat this winter is not just unbuttoned, but falling off your shoulders. The way it might be if you got home and then remembered, halfway through taking your coat off, that you’d left your phone in the car. Or if you were arriving at the opera and had arranged your mink stole to warm your upper arms without obscuring your diamond necklace.

I mean, I’m sorry, but – really? Even by fashion’s standards, this is madness, and that is saying something. And if it didn’t make much sense when it was on the catwalk in March, or first seen in glossy magazines in early September, then it makes a whole lot less sense now, when you put your coat on because you are cold rather than to model it as an objet d’art.

There is an alternative catwalk-approved look which will save you from catching your death this winter. The half-zip tracksuit top worn under a coat was a staple of winter’s catwalk collections, and is the last word in practical draught-exclusion. Sportswear integrated into your “smart” wardrobe has been a theme in style for a while now, and this is the logical next step for a trend that started with wearing trainers to work, and led into tracksuit bottoms on the fashion week front row.

The danger with this look is that it is too sensible to be instantly recognisable as being worn with style intent. If you are 23 with dip‑dyed pink hair and a curated earring selection, then it will be immediately obvious that you are referencing the Burberry catwalk and Deutschland 83. But if you are 43 and normal-looking then it may appear as if you are wearing it to – shudder – keep warm.

There’s no failsafe way round this, short of a drastic dip-dye job. But you can send fashion signals, starting by making sure the tracksuit top looks sharp (digging out the fleece you wore to death last time the boiler broke isn’t going to cut it) and making sure the coat is a clean and classic trench, peacoat or Crombie. Oh, and do the zip up before you leave the house – not to keep warm air in, but because that’s the look.

• Jess wears: trench coat, £89.99, zara.com. Top, £60, topshop.com. Trousers, £295, by Vince, from matchesfashion.com. Boots, £120, dune.co.uk. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Laurence Close at Carol Hayes Management.

