by Ellie Moss

Happy New Year SEE readers.

I hope you all had a good one. I have to say I think I had my best New Year’s Eve yet. I spent the usually dreaded and disappointing evening at a stunning party, wearing a great dress, drinking plenty of champagne and welcoming in the New Year with all my friends around me. What more could a girl want?

However, only hours before the event it was touch and go as to whether it was going to be a complete fashion disaster.

Having attempted to squeeze into my favourite Lipsy dress for New Year, only to find that after the Christmas binge the zip was refusing to cooperate and reach its destination, I set off into the scary world of the sales to find a suitably forgiving outfit.

Several hours later I returned home with party dress in hand only to find that one of my fellow partygoers had bought the same dress. Cue massive panic.

So on the final day of the decade, I found myself in Brent Cross Shopping Centre, North London, frantically trawling the sale rails in a desperate bid to find the perfect dress.

I searched high and low; I raided Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Primark, Zara, H&M and every other high street shop you can name; I tried on every party dress in Lipsy’s past and present seasons.

Finally I found what I was after in the often overlooked Mango (in Fenwicks). This beautiful black sparkly dress was down from £80 to £50 and perfect for our black tie, champagne-soaked New Year.

Sales - I love them and I loathe them, in equal measure.

Bargains are there to be found if you have the patience of a saint accompanied by razor sharp elbows. Excellent people-dodging skills are required as well as jedi-like pram, child and elderly relative out-manouvering abilities.

If you do manage to get your hands on a precious, highly-discounted item, hold tight. Coat shopping in Zara proved particularly problematic in this respect as every time I took my eyes off my latest find, a super-savvy sales shopper would snap it up.

I did bag my prize however and came home with a beautiful classic black coat, courtesy of my mother.

Topshop is always pretty good in the sales, with some serious discounts to be had but my top recommendation would be Zara. The chain has a great range of fashion forward items and classics, both of which are considerably discounted in the sales. The trend-based items are slashed to under £20, with many under £10, and classics are also available at incredibly reasonable prices.

H&M can be like a jumble sale at the best of times, but again where there’s a will there’s a way and there’s many a prize find to be had.

Emma: "Shopping for me has always been an enriching experience — a heady seduction of the senses as my brain races through my existing wardrobe for ways to make that piece on the hanger in front of me work. There is, however, nothing enriching about frantically rummaging through the unwanted, unsold and unloved scraps of the last four or five seasons in the January sales.

"Tempting as the price tags often are, it's almost inevitable you'll end up bringing home something you'll never wear after pranging your car in the heaving car park and having to pop a fist full of Nurofen just to quell the post-sale stress.

"If, like me, you'd rather skip the sales but can't resist the lure of a bargain, take my advice and stick to your favourite shops only — the last hour of the day is usually the calmest. Try to steer clear of that pink marabou handbag you've had your eye on and instead opt for classic styles and staple colours that have less chance of dating.

"Leather biker jackets have popped up again and again over the last few years so I reckon I'm not taking too much of a risk with this £5 Primark beauty (reduced from £15). The mushroom shade is bang on for Spring, and the lace Miss Selfridge scarf (£7 reduced from £15) keeps the look current."

Sarah: "I found my shoes in Office reduced from £90 to £50. Still not cheap but I have wanted them since the day I laid eyes on them and after a hard month I can happily justify it to myself as I know I'll wear them all the time.

"If you don't have the money to hit the sales this winter try revisiting your own wardrobe. I used to keep day and evening wear separate but now I mix and match. This jumpsuit is perfect for all occasions - dressed down with boots and a cardi, with killer heels for the evening, or sandals in the summer.

"If you are hitting the sales this month the best advice I can give is to keep a level head. Don't get over-excited by the price tag and think about how often you'll wear the item, what you have to go with it and whether it's going to go out of fashion in a month’s time.

"For me sale shopping is an opportunity to explore the shops I don't normally go into. I particularly like shoe sales as they finally slash those original price tags which to me are an eyesore, never mind the effect they have on your bank balance. I also like Monsoon, Accessorize, Zara, Office, Faith, Dune, Aldo, French Connection, USC (good for jeans), Debenhams and John Lewis (their high-end dresses never go out of fashion and every girl needs a good party frock). Shops I tend to avoid include Primark, H&M, River Island and Next.

"Good luck and remember don't make decisions based purely on price. It has been tried and tested (by me and plenty of others!) and I assure you, you will always end up regretting your buy."

So SEE readers, be brave, hit the shops and bagsy yourself a bargain.

See you next week and don't forget to send us your pictures at seerealfashion@hotmail.co.uk.