Jessica Alba covers up in bizarre floor-length hippie dress

Just weeks after her eighties-style fashion faux pas - featuring tapered ankles, pleated front, a high waist and a shade of lilac the likes of which we've not seen for two decades - Jessica Alba has done it again.

The Sin City star swapped last month's Bananarama-style disaster for hippie hell yesterday, sporting a gaudy orange floor-length dress mis(-matched) with a dowdy purple cardigan while visiting a friend in Beverly Hills.

Jessica Alba ditches her yummy mummy image for a bizarre hippie dress and dowdy cardigan while visiting a friend in Beverley Hills, California

The usually yummy mummy, who made the outing with her six-month-old daughter, Honor, completed the unfortunate look with a gold headband and sandles, black nail varnish and a practical white plastic bag.

Both mother and baby looked decidedly glum and Jessica bowed her head as she walked, sporting dark glasses. Could it be the shame?

The 27-year-old, who is currently shooting An Invisible Sign of My Own in which she plays a maths genius who withdraws from life after her father falls ill, has displayed a somewhat erratic fashion sense recently.

Judging from the expression on baby Honor's face, she is well aware of her mother's fashion faux pas despite her tender years

At Barack Obama's inauguration bash, the star glittered in a chic gold number that oozed sophistication.

But at a screening of the film My Bloody Valentine at the Chinese theatre in Hollywood last month, Jessica rocked up wearing what looked suspiciously like a pair of black spotty pyjamas.

Although Jessica's jim jams were actually from Dolce & Gabbana's spring 2009 collection, you can find a similar laidback style in the sleepwear section of your local Debenhams.