Whether you’re spending time relaxing on a beach, touring city in a European or reading outside in your own back yard, you’ll want to be feeling fashionable. Check out these tips for making or creating the most beautiful and trendy summer wardrobe.

- This year invest in a classic Parisian striped top. It will go with everything in your wardrobe, from high waisted shorts to 50s style tapered trousers. Pop it on when you want to look elegant and expensive, and add a straw hat for a Venetian twist.

- Hair styles for summer 2010 are inspired by braids. Whether you do a large messy fishtail side braid in the style of Alexander Wang’s New York show or create a vintage braided updo in the style of girls in Rochas, test and keep experimenting with different plaits for different occasions.

- The crew neck is the neckline of the season, and thank goodness, because this means that gorgeous tanned legs can be shown off to their full advantage whilst you remain elegant, luxurious and classy. Keep your t-shirts long sleeved as well as high necked, and for extra more fashion points invest in this season in a high-waisted skirt to mix and match with your multicoloured shirts.

- Learn the art of draping and wrapping, if you want to look super chic this summer. Donna Karan’s runway was filled with artistic fabric movements and styles, which you can replicate at home by being a bit more experimental and maybe even creating your own chiffon wrapped bodycon dress. Keep the colours neutral for the most delicate effect.

- Blonde hair is the ultimate summery compliment to bright glowing skin. Take a visit to your hairdresser to get some subtle highlights added that will catch the sun’s rays on a hot day by the beach. And keep drinking plenty of water so that your skin looks hydrated and fresh.

- Classic shapes mixed with modern prints make for a very pretty but edgy look. Combining lace and sharp tailoring and embroidery for a similar effect or bright contemporary colours with modern feminine cuts, and search for Erdem’s SS10 show for inspiration.

- Lace is definitely big for this season, as the ‘underwear as outerwear’ trend continues in high streets as well as on the catwalk. Lace edging on a vest top is a simple way to add it to your wardrobe, or look for a pretty 60s style cream lace dress with a silk slip underneath.

- Neutrals are set to be a big trend for the autumn/winter season, so if you want to start building a wearable wardrobe for the whole year, look to colours like camel, cream, beige, ivory, taupe, peach, nude and antique rose.

Gold can last forever, will not corrode or rust and can be found anywhere. Gold exists in plants, rivers, oceans, mountains, it’s nearly everywhere but it is extremely difficult and costly to extract this amazing metal. Did you know that a single ounce of gold can be pulled into a thin wire that stretches nearly five miles long? An artisans hammer can work that same ounce into a very thin sheet that can cover a 10ft x 10ft(100sq. ft.) area. Also, it takes nearly 3 tons of gold or to extract a single ounce of pure gold. Well if you didn’t now you know!

Gold Basics

The word Gold, used by itself, means all gold or 24 karat (24K) gold. Because 24K gold is soft, it’s usually mixed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability. If a piece of jewelry is not 24 karat gold, the karat quality should accompany any claim that the item is gold.

The karat quality marking tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with the other metals. Fourteen karat (14K) jewelry contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts of base metal. The higher the karat rating, the higher the proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry.

Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law. Near the karat quality mark, you should see the name of the U.S. registered trademark of the company that will stand behind the mark. The trademark may be in the form of a name, symbol or initials. If you don’t see a trademark accompanying a quality mark on a piece of jewelry, look for another piece.

Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry still is determined by the karat mark.

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways. Gold plate refers to items that are either mechanically plated, electroplated, or plated by any other means with gold to a base metal. Eventually, gold plating wears away, but how soon will depend on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Gold-filled, gold overlay and rolled gold plate are terms used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal. If the jewelry is marked with one of these terms, the term or abbreviation should follow the karat quality of the gold used (for example, 14K Gold Overlay or 12K RGP). If the layer of karat gold is less than 1/20th of the total weight of the item, any marking must state the actual percentage of karat gold, such as 1/40 14K Gold Overlay.

Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns thick) of a minimum of 10 karat gold deposited on a base metal by an electrolytic process. The terms gold flashed or gold washed describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns thick). This will wear away more quickly than gold plate, gold-filled or gold electroplate.

Vermeil (ver-may), a special type of gold plated product, consists of a base of sterling silver that is coated or plated with gold.