I have a confession to make - I very much prefer winter to summer clothes! Maybe because I was born on Christmas Day when my first experience of life was to be bundled up in warm layers (apparently 1947 was such a bitterly cold winter that I wore a woollen bonnet 24/7). So summer is challenging on a number of levels. Firstly it tends to encourage the exposure of flesh that, in my case, is best left covered. Arms, legs, décolleté are not my prettiest body parts. They never were and have not improved much with age. I do realise that I should be less self conscious and embrace 'agelessness' (which is a meaningless concept as far as I am concerned) however I just don't feel comfortable in a short, sleeveless, skimpy, neckline plunging summer outfit which might look wonderful on someone forty years younger than my 69 years, but looks hideous on me and believe me I have tried on a few horrors in the past few days!

So my solution is to resort to a summer coat worn over the lightest sleeveless top or camisole with narrow summer weight trousers and flattish or heeled shoes depending on the occasion. These wonderful garments cover a multitude of sins, including my arms, hips and thighs which are my heaviest areas. They are also great if you are 'apple' rather than 'pear' shaped like me. I have 5 such coats in my wardrobe, bought over the past three or four years, so I thought I'd show you how they can be dressed up or down according to the occasion. You can see them all in the photographs below and I hope you will agree that they would potentially be suitable for a very formal summer occasion, like a wedding or a smart lunch date, but could equally be dressed down with flat sandals or ballet pumps for shopping or sight-seeing. The white and dark pink coats are from Zara, the turquoise one is from LK Bennet, the blue one is by Helene (available in Fenwicks and John Lewis) and the pale pink one is Italian. I bought this from a style consultant, Barbara Crisp. Underneath each of the summer coats I am wearing plain cream and black tops and trousers all from Zara.

And now to our street style fashions for this week. There are some lovely summer coats here too! You can see that over the past month Beatrix Blaise, our photographer, has been snapping away whilst the weather has changed from very chilly to very warm and sunny. As usual I really hope you enjoy the selection. If you are a fan of Designers Guild, you may notice that Bea photographed Tricia Guild, who wouldn't disclose her age. 

Please do leave your thoughts below and tell us what you love about the style and what inspires you in the selection - rather than the opposite. We are always so grateful when these strangers accept our invitation to be photographed and I know how much you enjoy this feature!