Who wears the trousers in your household? If they have a classic pleat or have a flat front with a knife- edge running from waistband to hemline - perhaps with a turn-up, perhaps without - then it's likely to be the man of the house.

Because, girls, for spring/summer 2008, trousers in all their traditional forms simply don't exist in our wardrobes. Yes, really, they are gone. They have been banished to the fashion bin. We've been there and done that.

We adopted trousers and all that goes with them, espousing as they do feminism at its most ardent (did we ever really believe we had to dress like men to be their equals?).

We've toyed a little with the shape, fancying for a while the cowboy bootcut style, the rock legend's drainpipe, the flare or the Oxford bag.

But the androgynous styling of the past couple of decades has given way to an array of new interpretations of the traditional trouser shape.

We've liberated ourselves from the tyranny of tailoring and we're basking in the freedom of feminine frivolity.

This summer, there are harem pants, pyjama pants, all-in-one jumpsuits, city shorts, Capri pants and jodhpurs - and a plethora of variations on each.

However, tread carefully through the minefield of two-legged fashions.

I urge you to ask questions of your reflection if you are to avoid leaving the house in something you'll live to regret (possibly as soon as you arrive at the office/school gates/Starbucks later that morning).

And answer honestly, for otherwise you are only cheating yourself.

At what point do jodhpurs that make you look like the cover of a Jilly Cooper novel morph into a walking Thelwell cartoon?

Is a jumpsuit appropriate office attire?

Almost certainly not, unless you are a painter and decorator. Should you wear shorts if your age divided by two is still in double figures? Your head says no, your heart says yes.

From the catwalk to the High Street, how to find the trouser styles to suit YOU this season