Ever since a fashion-forward friend of mine picked up a little girl's cord jumper at a second-hand shop and slipped it on over a vintage tee and her favourite demins, I've been all over this trend. It's adorable, it's functional, it's all about layering, it's conservatively coy and it's downright cute.

And pooh-pooh to all those "wearing dresses over pants is for hippies" bores. We're not talking about pairing knee-length peasant skirts and frocks with billowy trousers or tattered denim. We're talking cute-as-a-button cropped dresses that barely skim your upper thigh over skinny jeans, leggings and tights.

Jump for joy!

I [heart] jumpers! Yes, they may remind me of grade school, monkey bars and bashful cheek kisses, but these suspendered dresses have jumped out of the playground and landed quite lovably in the grown-up world. The actual dress that the fashion world has deemed a "jumper" is hardly a clear cutout, spanning from an apron-like frock to a miniature shift dress, but the ambiguity doesn't bother us - they're all cute!

Simply put, a jumper is young, its innocent, its sleeveless, its short and it loves (and has) to be layered. Slip a wool pinafore dress over a crisp, undersized button-down and charcoal leggings, or zip a plaid mini-shift over waffle-panted gams. And a chocolaty yummy cord jumper belongs atop deep denim skinny jeans tucked into a pair of proper brown riding boots.

Our pick: A Lux cord jumper in chocolate, red and navy sugared up with western-style straps and pretty pin-tucking. Available at Urban Outfitters stores and online.

The unexpected

Dressing-over your ensemble isn't limited to your lower limbs, either. Jumpers rest happily atop button-downs, fitted knitwear, sleek turtlenecks and anything else that is saturated in preppy cool. Hop out of the jumper-sphere and layer the unexpected by pairing the delicately minimal with the warm and fuzzy: strapless frocks with princess-necklines or corset-inspired bodices with minimal straps look unexpectedly divine atop contrastingly cozy knit sweaters and conservative mock turtles.

Knitty love

Let knitwear take your look entirely over with thigh-grazing pieces that'll step up to defend your bod against the ever-tumbling barometre.

Delicious cable-knits, satisfying stripes and suped-up collars will keep you cozy from neck to knee. Slipped over a pair of leggings or your sexy skinnies (no bare legs, please), these snuggle bugs give you the dress-up factor of a casual sheath and the comfort of your grandmother's wooly blanket. Is anything better?

Our pick: V-neck sweater-dress in snowy tones at the ever-sophisticated Club Monaco (check it out on their website at clubmonaco.com).

Avoid with care

Ditch conservative hemlines. Anything longer than a hand's width above your knee is pushing it. When you pile shifts, jumpers and pinnies over skinny jeans, leggings and textured, coloured tights, you've immediately removed the risqué in short hems and have no risk of looking slutilicious, so hike 'em up!

Don't get lost in frumpy underpinnings. Baggy pants, blowsy tops, and saggy leggings are inarguably no-nos. You're going for cute youthfulness here, not layer-o-matic bag lady.

Say no to naked. This is a dress-over trend, not an under-dressing trend! Just because we're permitting (and celebrating) thigh-exposing hemlines does not mean we're condoning them in all situations! Never shall a bare leg be pared with a sweater dress, nary a bare bum shall peak out from below a naked-gammed bend over, and never (ever) will the adjectives "short" and "tight" join to describe one garment.

Avoid enrolling in private school. If you match your plaid jumper with grey waffle leggings, a set of black knee socks, a charcoal cable-knit turtleneck and a pair of Mary Jane's, something terribly wrong has just occurred.

Steer clear of totally abolishing this adorable trend in a school-girl geekoid disaster by upping the age factor in your footwear. Pointy-toed flats with buckle or bow details in patents or suedes finish off your legging-plus-dress ensemble, slip your stockinged tootsies into chunky heels with T-straps or buckles, and Robin Hood fold-overs and rocking riding boots are a happy home for your slim jeans.

So jump in! Layering pinnies, sweater dresses, shifts, apron-dresses and jumpers with conservative knitwear, preppy button-downs and cozy legwear brings out the little girl in all of us - and wasn't she a lot of fun?