If you don’t know what the Hackney look is, chances are you’ve never seen it.

Work: suit £38, jumper £18

Play: dress £35

Not that the so-called ‘Shoreditch style’ is particularly unified. That’s the point – it’s about unusual clothes in crazy colours, oversized worn with undersized, stripes with spots, and looking great whatever the combination.

Me, I don’t have it. I wear conservative clothes and stick out like a sore thumb amongst the borough’s trendy residents.

Thankfully, Meryl and Laura are on hand at their vintage boutique Vintroville to give me a true Hackney makeover.

The pair, actresses in their mid-twenties who traded a Portobello market stall for a dinky little shop last month, are fabulously bohemian; exactly the style I’m hoping to perfect by the end of the afternoon.

First up is ‘work’ wear. The office we have in mind is right out of glamorous 1960s TV series Mad Men, as I get dolled up in a natty suit with gold buttons and statement specs, then try a dress with shoulder pads that would make Margaret Thatcher proud. Lydia, in charge of hair and make-up, pins the perfect bun; a style I’d need a team of professionals to replicate but one I am assured is very in right now.

I’m learning Hackney style isn’t just about clothes – it’s the eclectic shoes, the daub of lipstick – colourful kissers are a must – and the clashing but complimentary clutch bag. It’s also about serious experimentation, which becomes clearer as we move to look two, ‘play’.

Party: dress £42, red bag £20

A heated debate involving purple trousers gets underway. We team them with a wooly green cardigan, but my fairy godmothers decide an androgynous jacket completes the look better. And of course, some vertiginous heels which leave me in a decidedly non-playful mood.

There’s also backcombed hair and a sixties mini-dress, which seems more suited to sunny California than cloudy Clapton.

Play: trousers £18, jacket £23, shirt £12

I’m a diehard Primark fan and these looks are a world apart, but my stylists profess to loving the high street; apparently it’s en vogue to mix cheap tat with time-tested fashion.

Not that vintage is pricey; most Vintrovelle clothes are under £30.

The only downside is previous generations were somewhat daintier, something I grimly realise as I attempt to squeeze my size-six feet into delicate pumps.

Finally, it’s on to ‘party’, the look Shoreditch stylistas go all out on. Just when I thought the shoulder pads couldn’t get any bigger, they do, on an 80s cocktail dress that makes me feel like I’m Joan Collins.

Very edgy, but would someone really go out in public wearing it?

Yes, say Meryl and Laura, because it’s all about how you wear it. The Hackney look is not just a style, it’s a state of mind.

Party: dress for hire, bag £10

Lastly, we go for old-fashioned glamour with a deep green ballgown, a one in a million dress. It seems that’s the ultimate key to Hackney dressing. Whatever you wear, there can’t be somebody else in it.

Although, as Lydia observes, all this individuality can mean everyone in Hackney ends up looking exactly the same.

Clothes, all Vintroville, 205 Hackney Road, E2 8JL

Hair and make up: Lydia Warhurst (07906 078 770 / Lydia-f-warhurst@hotmail.com)

Styling and photos: Laura Mcalpine and Meryl Fernandes

Work: dress £32, bag £20