It’s out through this window that he’s flown, in order to escape from his book. It was she whom most he beautified and who most beatified him. He left his current clients with a collection they would love to wear. I have grown up with its influence.” Think of Givenchy and think of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in Sabrina, in Funny Face.

Christian Lacroix paid tribute: “The house of Givenchy,” he said, “is as old as I am. They come back for more because they can wear Yves not only to balls and soirees, but for everyday lunch meetings too: a simple black wool suit with no fiddly detailing except a set of sparkly diamante buttons means no more wardrobe dilemmas – ever.GivenchyWhen he walked to the end of the catwalk, impeccable in his white atelier coat, and bowed to the applause for the last time, he had the air of another age, the age when women wore hats indoors and changed at least three times a day Hubert de Givenchy, age 68, was saying goodbye Yves Saint Laurent held his old friend in emotional embrace. He may talk a good black and white but his best ideas come in colours.Yves Saint LaurentHow magnificent to have created a whole canon of classics, how wise to keep the faith. Saint Laurent’s collections always include the tuxedo smoking suit (for this autumn/winter, with a knee-skimming skirt); the peacoat in slate grey or camel wool; the mannish trouser suit, with high shoulders, in chalk-stripe wool crepe. He is called a genius, but to his women d’un certain age he is a friend. More pertinent to his success is the unusually close bond he has formed with the brewers.

Most famously, Jackie Kennedy’s dress for her Onassis wedding – an occasion so global in its notoriety that 38 plutocratesses forgot their lust for real exclusiveness and promptly ordered the same dress.Christian LacroixThe star who announced himself in a blaze of brightness ten years ago, said he was concentrating on the colour black for this winter. Black in every conceivable texture and shade (charcoal to jet) Clearly his concentration lapsed. He could not resist throwing in a blood-red wool suit and a violet tulip skirt in duchess satin, let alone the simple long-sleeved evening dress in the brightest sweetest shade of lipstick pink satin you see here. Ah, so that’s why he gives interviews, to boost his public image for all the licensing committees he has to sit through? “No, it doesn’t help at all,” he says morosely.

Apparently at the last one he attended he was told: “The problem with you, Mr Power, is that you are too high-profile…” And then he gives me a wry look as if to say: so be grateful, chum. Valentino

The heavy black wrapover skirt is lined in sumptuous pink satin. The most delicate of lace is beaded and layered over a fine mesh of chiffon. The dress is finished off by a garland of perfectly sculpted organza orchids.