The word “sequin” derives from the Arabic word “sikka”, which means coin or dice and its original function was a way to display a family’s wealth, so women in certain cultures would adorn their headdresses, face veils and their hips with our twinkling friend. So how did this symbol of society and substance make its way into the arenas of disco, “Dallas” and Strictly Come Dancing?

Anyone who listened to the Bee Gees and Hot Chocolate believed that the closer you looked to a glitter ball in 1977, the closer you were to putting the cool in Kool and the Gang. Unfortunately for the sequin, this involved a gruelling change of destiny from its highborn emergence, into a world where Gloria Gaynor was God-like…and things didn’t get much better in the 1980s. The demand for glamorous and more ritzy, glitzy fashions rejected the free-loving values of earlier years and experimented with the structures best exampled in “Dynasty”. Shoulder pads, sequins and diamantes ruled secondly only to Margaret Thatcher. The sequin was trapped in a garish cycle of mohair and multicolour, but luckily, it would seem that the tea leaves are rearranging for the future of the sequin and Fashion.

Despite its troubled past, I am loving the new direction of the sequin. I’m a fan of the “in-your-face-all-the-while-being-stylish” motif, and I think the “sikka” is fighting back into Fashion’s heart. Like an army on the frontline, the more numbers of sequins you have, the more powerful the force. Afterall, what would have happened to Winston Churchill if he had fought the war single-handedly?

However, you don’t want two conflicting armies of sequins in one outfit. Despite my love of sequinned leggings and jackets, I wouldn’t put the two together and this principle applies to colour too. Keep the colours as simple as you can to give the sequins a dignity to match their original purpose. Keep it black, keep it silver, keep it gold, maybe even add a splash of red or midnight blue, but anything more than that and you‘re heading for a one-way ticket to Dolly Parton‘s wardrobe.

If you do have a burning desire to dazzle the colour spectrum, do so with your accessories. Add a hair piece or a handbag or a clinquant corsage. Otherwise, you might see your army rebelling against you. It may seem like a good idea at the time mix your sequins and you’re bound to turn heads, but don‘t become a walking strobe light. The aim is to dazzle people, not to injure them!