Thursday night - the Amfar dinner in Cannes - and Milla Jovovich and Alessandra Ambrosio set the flashbulbs alight with to-die-for ethereal, woven styles. Each so good they sparked a cacophony of stares from the rest of Hollywood’s finest standing close by. Which doesn't happen often. 

But braids, as in plaits and twists and all things twirly and interwoven, aren’t always the easiest. To pull off, that is. Problem being, it’s all too easy to look like more Pippi Longstockings than Grecian goddess reincarnation (for which, Allesandra springs to mind again).

So, how do you work a braid in 2013? Well here are the past and present icons who got it in one. Take note and get plaiting, people.