​ From Miuccia Prada and Victoria Beckham to Stella McCartney, how to dress like a high-end designer… at high street prices

After a month of catwalk shows, fashion watchers forensically analyzed the clothes of every supermodel and celebrity front row in the hope of uncovering their style secrets.

But there is one very important group whose personal style is often unfairly neglected: the designers themselves.

From the colorful Miuccia Prada, the 74-year-old matriarch of modern Italian fashion, to the ultra-polished Victoria Beckham, 49, who even managed to make a pair of stools look chic on the Paris Fashion Week catwalk, these designers – Women, mainly in their 50s and over, are the brains behind the catwalk looks that influence the High Street and have spent decades carefully honing their wardrobe to showcase their personal style, while flattering an older figure.

Here we share how to steal their high fashion secrets on a budget…

Classic with a crazy twist: Miuccia Prada

“I think many people have different characters within themselves: the feminine and the masculine, the soft and the tough,” Miuccia has said. And this is the key to emulating her style: juxtaposition. Try pairing feminine dresses with penny loafers and men’s shirts with jeweled earrings.

Appearing on the cover of Vogue last month, Prada wore a red silk coat over a citrine sweater, both from her first Prada collection, and completed the look with gold chains as thick as bicycle chains. In another shot, she added a touch of androgyny to her suit skirt by pairing it with stubby monk shoes. Chinti & Parker has reduced a jumper to £76 (harrods.com) that’s as racy as Miuccia’s from Prada’s archives, while Baukjen has a recycled wool version of her red silk coat that’s better suited to British climates ( £179, baukjen.com).

Tasteful maximalism: Diane von Fürstenberg

DVF’s commitment to print is a refreshing antidote to the beige palette of ‘stealth wealth’. To emulate her style, look for intricate floral and geometric prints, and don’t be afraid of a touch of leopard.

Zara has a floral shirt that looks like Cezanne painted the flowers himself (£32.99, zara.com). Wear Boden’s tomato red pencil skirt (£77, boden.co.uk) for an unapologetically feminine, DVF-inspired look. And don’t forget her most iconic creation: the wrap dress, which she invented in 1974 and still wears repeatedly at the age of 77. Hobbs has a geometric version that looks completely out of Fürstenberg (£99, hobbs.com).

Polished poise: Victoria Beckham

VB showed just how committed she is to her ultra-polished personal style when she stepped out in Paris on crutches earlier this month; she had a medical cast on one foot and a pair of £860 Alaia heels on the other.

Custom-made flared clothes from her own brand are usually the 49-year-old’s shortcut to chic: they are beautifully cut and exude 70s glamour. But with a price tag of over £500, your next best bet comes courtesy of Boden. Their Westbourne flares (£80, boden.co.uk) are available in a range of colors and in a flattering ponte fabric. VB usually pairs her flares with a turtleneck in a clashing shade – think red with Cadbury purple and lime with lilac. Oh, and sunglasses of a size that clearly screams: ‘My father had a Rolls Royce’. Naturally.

Cool casual: Stella McCartney

Talk about cool Britannia. Stella’s aesthetic is approachable and wearable, yet somehow the epitome of aspirational and chic at the same time.

Her essentials? Customization, customization and more customization. See the gray suit she wore to her show in Paris last week or the bold London bus red blazer she wore to an art fair last October.

And the golden rule of this customization? Four words: Size. Upwards. In. Everything. Reserved has a scarlet jacket (€69.99) and trousers (€39.99, reserved.com) which, in several sizes larger than your usual (don’t hold back here), will give the perfect McCartney menswear-inspired silhouette .

During the day, Stella, 52, makes her suits suitable for running errands by pairing them with white sneakers; towards evening, stilettos reign supreme.