If ever proof were needed of the havoc that fashion can wreak on even the most good-looking girl, it came on Friday night with Kate’s coming- out outfit. An enviably lithe 22-year-old, the Big Brother winner had looked suitably cool from the start. She’s athletic and knows how to work a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with the best of them. As she is, undoubtedly, in possession of what men ingeniously describe as “a great arse”, it’s small wonder that she’s happy to dress in this most modern of uniforms. Anyone with a shape like hers would do well to follow suit. Kate also clearly reads Now magazine, and every fashion glossy from Elle to InStyle, however, all of which have poisoned her mind with the need to follow the whims of fashion rather too literally. Yes, for the first time since we set eyes on her, Kate was actually seeking to look trendy - weirdly and self-consciously trendy. She’d clearly never worn the outfit before - a mistake worthy of a 13-year- old - and felt sorely uncomfortable as a result. All in all, a sorry case of aching to be fashionable over and above looking good.

Let’s take it from the (white lace) top. Lace! The fabric of the summer season! White! The colour of the summer season! It’s hardly aided by the requisite mahogany skin tone, as paraded by every Big Brother housemate to date. More important, lace, truth to tell, needs to be expensive and, preferably, vintage; Kate’s just looked like it must itch. As for the all-too-visible bra (also Colgate white and possibly orthopaedic) worn underneath… that was, of course, a look pioneered by Madonna circa Desperately Seeking Susan, and it works only in black Next, what was that skirt, and who should be shot for designing it? An A-line hybrid of summer’s much-hyped and best-forgotten gypsy/ peasant style, and in bleached denim for that life-on-the-street feel, to boot, it was embellished with a large panel of what looked like more lace! Whoever said co-ordinated dressing went out with the Fifties? Whichever way you look at it, said garment went to prove that bohemian is not a style that can be bought - it’s a mood, man - and that even the snake-hipped among us will look like the back of the proverbial bus in a badly cut garment.

Poor Kate. It should have been her finest moment, but she actually looked better in her Big Brother-supplied spangly pink plate- spinning costume. (Persistent rumour: it was designed by Jeremy Scott.) In the end, her big mistake was to try too hard - from the panda eyes to the strappy high heels - and to opt for a style that was a million miles from her own. She has the kind of squeaky-clean, tomboy appeal that doesn’t suit overdressed. One of the Brady Bunch auditioning for Fleetwood Mac springs to mind.

Admittedly, we’ve all been there, but the best thing about fashion today is that there is no longer any strict dress-code. It’s fine to be dressed to the nines on the way to the supermarket one minute and to look like the world’s most beautiful bag-lady at a black-tie reception the next. Some of the world’s most stylish men think nothing of wearing jeans with a dinner-jacket.

Of course, Kate’s was not the only Big Brother fashion faux pas, and all future housemates would do well to take heed. In the meantime, don’t even get me started on Jade…

Susannah Frankel is the fashion editor of `The Independent