PARIS - It's the first month of the year, and time to take a look at your wardrobe and what to wear this season.

The keyword here is "curate". Let's not push the panic button and think of the consequences of not having the latest pieces from several collections. No one dies from wearing past-season collections - the idea is that you create your own style.

Curate works by selecting essential and classic pieces. It's very simple, when it comes to building a wardrobe, you just need to have a selection of excellent basics.

While you may think that any old T-shirt will do, quality counts. Cut and fit are very important. Go for tailored pants and jackets, a well-cut suit, T-shirts made of the best fabric, several white shirts, pencil skirts or long skirts, a black dress... This is the starting point.

From there, move on to the seasonal collections, where you add in some trends for a fresh look as well as some fun pieces.

Don't forget to include the pre-collections, special collections and cruise/resort collections. You can pick up great investment pieces from them.

Always work with what you have, go through the collections and pick out things you know you're actually going to wear. As much as fashion writers love to gush about architectural proportions, dimensional silhouettes and fantastical creations, these are, at the end of the day, clothes, not art sculptures.

But, of course, when it comes to matters of personal style, who says you can't look like a work of art if you want to?

Bear in mind there aren't many people who can carry off unusual proportions, so keep it simple and stick to what works for you.

Fashion isn't rocket science and trends are just that, trends. A collection is merely a guide, the final look rests with you.