If you’re the type who has tons of clothes but never anything to wear, read on. Once we Brits thought that professional style advice was best left to our Transatlantic cousins. We legged it in department stores at the sight of consultants wearing knee-high foundation and extreme designer clothes: reincarnated Stepford Wives telling us which colours and styles of clothes (and makeup) to wear.

We preferred instead to be amateurish in our garment purchases – either going for DIY or stupidly relying on shop assistants to give us honest, objective advice. (Hello, who’s on commission here?)

Either way, all too often we ended up with expensive and uncoordinated items. Impulse buys and age inappropriate clothes. Rubbish sales purchases. And clothes that will fit one day, honest.

Now Notting Hillybillies, sharp investors and slebs are turning to professional help. “Personal stylists have gone big,” confirms Fiona Golfar, editor at large of British Vogue. More specifically, they’re hiring stylist Annabel Hodin to help them make their sartorial choices. She’s an erstwhile model – she was talent spotted by US Vogue’s Anna Wintour – and is the fashion editors’ favourite.

There’s scarcely a glossy magazine editor or newspaper fashionista who hasn’t sought her help. After all, the girl has pedigree: she has created looks for Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Bryan Ferry, styling their photo shoots. And the same for Helena Bonham Carter, Rachel Weisz and Mariella Frostrup.

Annabel offers a bespoke service that includes consultations, wardrobe edits, shopping trips and follow ups in person and/or on the phone. Initially she comes to your house or office – the latter for a consultation, ideal for those who feel shy about a lady going through their drawers within an hour of meeting. If she’s doing a home visit, you’d best wear good underwear – you’ll be trying on clothes.

With refreshing frankness and energy, she’ll go through your wardrobe –and with you, she’ll select looks that work for you, find gaps in your closet, identify what you think you want and need and discuss what she reckons would work. Yep, time to chuck the vintage if you’re old enough to have worn it first time round.

After her efficient edit, you’ll have a leaner wardrobe. (Mine was positively slimline.) Then she’ll put your clothes into outfits to see what’s missing, and together you’ll set out to fill them. So now to shopping! Yipee! She has already scoured the shops for weeks prior to meeting you, understands what suits you probably better than you know yourself, and knows where to find everything….whether it be designer or high street. She’ll whizz you through West London’s stylish boutiques and on to Selfridges or perhaps to St John’s Wood High Street’s Joseph – which has clothes not carried elsewhere – for core items. And all done with military precision and a brilliant eye.

Annabel helps you buy key pieces that will last: simple, timeless cuts. She avoids cheap fabrics, cuts and colours. She goes for multiple buys if it’s a vital core item. (Genius. It never occurred to me to buy more than one of something that suits me. “It saves one for best,” she says. “If it’s a classic, you can have it in more than one colour.”) She discourages shopping in the sales. “Only if you already know it’s the right size and colour.” And when you’re all alone and that shopping urge comes upon you, she recommends that you, “Only go where they’ll reimburse!”

Having an appointment with Annabel may be the some of the best money you’ve ever spent. It was for me. When I sold my ‘rejects’ to a second hand dress agency, I made more money than she charges for a consultation. Oh, and she gave me top tips on everything from beauty, my hair cut and colour to personal trainers. Friends keep telling me how good I look. For the first time in my life, I have a capsule wardrobe that works and can be updated (inexpensively) with accessories. For the first time ever, I can’t say that the only clothes I like are the ones I’m about to buy…

Under-eye bags big enough to carry your weekend gear? Crows’ feet, rabbit lines (on the nose), smokers’ lines?

What about muffin-top tummy or basement-level libido and energy? Or maybe tits/moobs going south, saggy bum or wattle (that’s a wobbly double chin)?

If you are bothered by any of these and want to understand more about the best way to banish the problem, high50’s Anti-Ageing Debate could help you. Dr Daniel Sister, an advocate for the scalpel and needles methods, will fight it out with our award-winning beauty journalist Jo Fairley, who favours the potions and lotions route. Interventions of a scientific kind will do battle with proponents of skin-deep solutions.

Dr Daniel Sister is a world-renowned hormone and anti-ageing specialist. He is a needles-not-unguents man who has practised for 40 years at many of the world’s premier clinics (including Dr Sebagh’s).

He has written several acclaimed books, is published in medical journals, has treated thousands of men and women, and regularly appears on TV. Phew!

His research studies and expertise are sought after by the beauty, anti-ageing, nutrition and complementary medical communities.

Science in the salon
Dr Sister works in London at BeautyWorksWest, a beauty clinic with slick, vibrating pedicure thrones and scented treatment rooms, where a client can go in as a sexagenarian and come out as a sex bomb.

When he started out in the Seventies, he worked in a hospital with rheumatic disease sufferers. “Most of them were are old and, in trying to help them, I got into anti-ageing treatments,” he says.

Salon-administered science appeals to the aesthete in him. He uses only methods that are approved in Europe and the States.

He believes in science-based interventions rather than snake oil and designer potions, and in tackling ageing from the inside out. “Everything I use has an evidence base,” he says. “It’s all backed by research and reasonable-size case studies.”

He finds new treatments by attending international conventions and seminars and quizzing other experts about developments in the field.

Hence le docteur (he is from France) has managed to introduce an incroyable seven anti-ageing ‘firsts’ to the UK market, including ‘Dracula’ (aka Platelet-Rich Plasma) therapy.

This treatment has attracted worldwide attention. Not surprising, then, that rather than flogging pots of nice-smelling creams, you’ll always find him talking about things like IPL or Radio Frequency, and Infra Red and Polaris; all designed to give if not quite eternal youth, then something not too far from it.

Needles over knives
He doesn’t do surgery. “I prefer needles to knives,” he says. “But I refer people [for surgery] when required.”

Mostly he thinks surgery is unnecessary. There has been such progress in the development of non-invasive treatments, and most procedures (from reconstruction to fat removal) can now be done non-invasively.

“Fat removal, for example, can now be achieved with ultrasound, laser and radio frequency,” he says.

He’s also a top doc when it comes to balancing hormones, one of the best ways to fight the ageing process. When our hormones are in balance, the body generates new tissue and more energy, and can fight disease. (A reduction in hormone production is the probable cause of the growing incidence of premature ageing.)

Dr Sister’s anti-ageing armoury:
YOUTH: pills to boost hormone production
His beauty and wellness products include YOUTH food supplements, which re-boot the production of the growth hormone in women d’un certain age (and old male bangers, too). If you want to get technical, YOUTH tackles ageing with Arginine, Glutamine and Lysine (amino acids and marine plant extracts, to the uninitiated), which promote skin radiance, sleep and energy levels.

Dracula Therapy: injections of blood, vitamins and amino acids
Dracula Therapy is his most popular full-throttle age-defier and uses the patient’s blood as an injectable treatment. A small blood sample is separated by centrifugation into red blood cells, clear serum and platelets. Vitamins and Amino Acids are then added to create a super-charged serum, which is injected back into the skin.

“There are no disadvantages,” he says. “Nobody can be allergic to his own blood. It’s efficient, proven, and the first step towards using stem cells.”

Dermal fillers: a new nose
He has pioneered non-surgical nose re-sculpting by injecting dermal fillers – gel-like substances that are totally safe – which gives a patient a new nose in ten minutes. He uses Hyaluronic acid – which is biocompatible with human Hyaluronic acid – to create ooh-ah faces and hands.

Injections of carbon dioxide and Botulin Tox
In Carboxy therapy, he injects Carbon Dioxide Gas (CO2) to tackle stretch marks, cellulite and dark eye bags.

It doesn’t stop there. He’s been doing surgery- free breast enhancement treatments for years, with Botulin Tox and injections, including super-charged plasma.

Lipo, light therapy and lasers
He also performs several methods of non-surgical liposuction. One of his fat- busting treatments (MELT) combines radio frequency, magnetic waves, ultrasound and light therapy and another uses a non- invasive laser to melt the F-word from within fat cells.

“Conservative” Brits
For those souls who think creams and serums are efficient, he has this to say: “There’s not one scientific study to show that they work, but many to prove that they don’t. There’s the ‘feel good factor’ – they feel good on your skin, but they don’t penetrate deep enough.”

Contrastingly, he can find no downsides to scientific intervention.

With so much being discovered in anti-ageing treatments, we’re on the brink of a brave, young world. He says: “Only five years ago, ultrasound and radio frequency weren’t even used. Each time we open a door, there are ten more [discoveries] behind,” he says. “There’s a lot to be explored with stem cells.”

The Israelis are pioneers in creating equipment for age-defying treatments. The gold for hormone therapies goes to the Americans. The injectable treatments medal gets scooped by the Europeans.

And the Brits? “They’re very traditional and conservative,” he says. “They don’t embrace the techniques fast.”

Which, paradoxically, is good news for high50 readers. Otherwise, Dr Sister wouldn’t need to thump his tub at the high50 Anti-Ageing Debate this month. And we’d miss out on deciding who’s right.

Jo Fairley, high50’s beauty editor, is putting her elegant neck on the line in defence of topical treatments. We salute Dr Sister for joining her there.