Sandra Howard celebrates fashion’s return to the age of elegance

Nostalgia is a funny thing. Those memories can catch you unawares, like bright ideas in the night, and then you're off, daydreaming, transported back whole decades.

You can be happily getting on with life in the now - texting, tweeting, ordering groceries online: but nothing is protection against those dreamy little flips down memory lane.

That's how I felt when I chanced upon a wonderful set of dresses this week. An abundance of companies has sprung up which are remodelling the designs of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s - the wonderful, elegant styles of my childhood and teens.

Only these designs are made from up-to-date, easy-wash fabrics and cut in sizes to fit modern women - so no more trawling through the vintage rails in search of something gorgeous.

I spent a happy afternoon poring over a couple of websites, wallowing in nostalgia. A company called Lindy Bop had some lovely tea and day dresses, and they're amazing value, too.

I wish I'd happened on one of them a year ago when a friend had the brilliant idea of giving a tea dance for her husband's 70th birthday. She chose a graciously old-fashioned hotel for the venue and we all spent months finding and adjusting our vintage frocks for the occasion.

And didn't we look grand in our elegant, swirly-skirted gowns! Some wore long white gloves, some had feathers, or little nonsenses of hats and diamanté hairclips. We danced, had dainty sandwiches, cakes, strawberries, fizz in fluted glasses and tea in fragile china cups. It was bliss.

The styles were just so flattering. It left me thinking how wonderful it would be to bring a little nostalgia and elegance to every night out.

The dresses I saw online are really wearable - and not just for old-style tea parties. I particularly liked a 1940s-style tea dress that, while figure flaunting, had a demure high-necked Peter Pan collar, puffed sleeves and covered buttons. It would be ideal for office-into-evening wear.

I remember wearing a similar dress on a shoot with David Bailey, back in 1959 or 1960 - a floaty chiffon number that snugged down over the waist and hips, but flared out in a flouncy way from just below the hip to knee level. It stands out in my mind as a dress I longed to own.

Nor is it just the tea dresses of the 1940s that are having a comeback. A 1950s-style day dress - sleeveless, full-skirted and with a nipped-in waist - would look snappy and fun for parties and holidays. Team it with a smart little shrug (or bolero, as we used to call them). You could even add a full petticoat, with layers of net, if you want to go the whole hog.

My abiding memory of that look is one of the first modelling shoots I ever did, wearing one of the full-skirted, petticoated, cotton frocks of the time; royal blue horizontal stripes alternating with a flower print.

It turned up on the cover of a magazine called Illustrated, and I saw it at a bookstall at Waterloo Station and did a double-take. My father kept showing it to friends. I was still in my teens and couldn't bear the embarrassment.

Fashions seem to be circular. Everything comes round again. I love the polka-dot comeback and the spriggy prints.

Take a look at some of these bygone-era fashions redesigned as new. You'll find swirly skirts, coat-dresses, wiggle dresses, evening gowns, swing and rockability party frocks that are great to jive in. Dig out your rock 'n' roll vinyls, gather up your skirts and enjoy a trip down memory lane.

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