Designer looks and catwalk shows don't always dictate what's in vogue. It's impossible to buy haute couture fashion without a superstar's salary, so our budgets always have a bearing on the look of the moment.

Throughout the decades, even if there has been an absence of cash to splash on clothes, women have always managed to recreate glamour and style on a shoestring. A new book, 50 Years Of Everyday Fashion (produced by Yours magazine, £4.99), takes a retrospective look back at the fashions that turned heads on the High Street.

From the 1940s sweetheart post-war years, through to 1980s power dressing, revel in the memorable styles of the decades with our pick of the way we wore.

How many items did you own? And, more importantly, how many are you still wearing?

THE FREEDOM YEARS: 1948-1956

KEY PIECES: Capri pants, pencil skirts, circular skirts, conical bras, peep-toe shoes, puffball skirts, net petticoats, pedal pushers.

"The launch of Christian Dior's 1947 New Look' collection was, for women all over war-ravaged Europe, the start of a return to feminine frills," said Sheena Harvey, author of 50 Years Of Everyday Fashion.

"On the Parisian catwalks it was obvious that the aim of the new fashion was the glorification of the female figure.

"After years of having to make do with the bare minimum and plain and recycled garments, it was an exciting breath of fresh air. Wide skirts and lace trim, furs and pretty underwear, buttons and bows, they were all back . . . in theory.

"Even when clothes rationing ended in March 1949, we were restricted in what could be created," Harvey explains.

"But with a few compromises in the width of our skirts we made our own versions of the haute couture originals."

RADICAL YEARS: 1956-1965

KEY PIECES: Shift dresses, sweater dresses, sack dresses, Chanel jackets, polo necks, pillbox hats, seamless stockings.

"Fashion began to be dictated by the young," Harvey says. "This was the era of rock and roll, cool jazz, soul and blues, of teenage rebellion and Mods and Rockers.

"For a while, clothes became simple. Shift and sweater dresses with plain belts, sack dresses which moved away from the drawn-in, wasp waist and made us look like a giant almond and long, bulky sweaters over straight trousers. We still liked our flared skirts, especially in summer but we didn't bulk them out with so many petticoats. Sashes, cummerbunds and high belts accentuated our waistlines."

And for women who still wanted to look super-smart? "There were Chanel suits and pillbox hats," Sheena Harvey said.

"Chanel's trademark fashion look was easy to copy and we were able to buy mass-produced versions that looked great and made us feel smart.

PEACEFUL REVOLUTION: 1965-1970

KEY PIECES: Mini skirts, thigh-high boots, pinafore dresses, trouser suits, hot pants, hipster trousers, flared jeans, headbands.

"From the mid-60s, Op Art influenced fabric design. We went for geometric forms and patterns that looked as if they were flickering and vibrating," Sheena explained.

"We could choose striking clothes in black and white checkerboards, wavy lines and spirals that created optical effects. Bright colours were in too, especially yellow, purple and orange, and we saw the Union Flag everywhere.

"We wore skinny, striped jersey dresses, with hems up to six inches above the knee, trenchcoats, big earrings, berets and granny shoes. If we were very daring, we wore PVC mini-skirts with flat-soled boots, or geometric dresses with bare midriffs."

Designers producing for the mass market became coveted too, according to Harvey: "Where we shopped became very important and we had to have in our wardrobe a T-shirt with the distinctive Biba logo, a make-up bag with the Mary Quant daisy flower or a pair of Courreges boots. We weren't showing off that we had money, we were proving that we had style."

THE TIME FASHION FORGOT: 1970-1980

KEY PIECES: Velvet jackets, gypsy tops, tie-dyed T-shirts, smocks, corduroy trousers, pop socks, boob tubes.

"The casual hippie era spilled into the early 70s and influenced almost everything we wore," Sheena said.

"Ethnic fabrics and patterns that had been so revolutionary at the end of the 60s began to appear in everyone's everyday wardrobe.

"We were feeling romantic at the beginning of the era and shops like Laura Ashley and Ossie Clark's Quorum opened to cater for our most feminine side.

"We bought or made A-line, princess and granny dresses with long sleeves, high necks and floor-length hems, with pretty cotton and calicos trimmed with lace. Floaty white cotton frocks, chiffon, ruffles, crocheted shawls and white Peter Pan collars and cuffs on sweet Mary Quant dresses were all popular.

"Above all in the 1970s, we had colour. Bright, fluorescent, rainbow and day-glo colours, oranges, browns, purples and yellows, electric blues and shocking pinks, and we didn't care if they clashed."

POWER DRESSING: 1980-1990

KEY PIECES: Cycling shorts, shoulder pads, shell suits, ra-ra skirts, frilly pirate shirts, sweatpants, slogan T-shirts, jean jackets.

"The 1980s borrowed fashions from a variety of eras, but exaggerated them to suit this more over-the-top time," Harvey explains.

"This was the decade where everything was big, bright and often, expensive. We were all watching Dallas and Dynasty and their OTT fashions and big hair rubbed off on us. No respectable top was without its shoulder pads - we found them in every type of garment, even T-shirts."

Were you young and frivolous in the 80s era? "You might have bought a puffball skirt or teamed a ra-ra skirt with footless tights and legwarmers," Harvey suggests.

"There were a lot of new synthetic fabrics in the 80s that mimicked more expensive natural products.

"The decade saw the real explosion in sportswear as fashion wear and what we wore to the gym also showed up around the home, out shopping, and even at parties."

FULL CIRCLE: 1990-1997

KEY PIECES: Cardigan coats, puffa jackets, combat pants, leather trousers, Adidas windpants, baggy jeans.

"The fashion trend that came through most strongly in the 1990s was pleasing yourself and dressing to suit you as an individual," Harvey reveals.

"Not all the trends were new ones as the decade also paid tribute to a large number of fashions from past eras. It was a time when we were most likely to say: Look what's back in fashion!"

"The trend for buying designer clothes that started in the 1980s, really took off in the 1990s with names like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Jimmy Choo became almost as widely known as Marks & Spencer."