After almost two years of shows behind closed doors, Dior provided a dramatic curtain raiser to the Paris couture season on Monday afternoon. There was palpable excitement at the return to catwalks proper – not least among the celebrities gathered to watch the fun at the Musée Rodin on the Left Bank. These included former Bond villainess Rosamund Pike, Lady Amelia Windsor (a distant cousin of The Queen), The Crown’s Claire Foy and supermodels Natalia Vodianova and Cara Delevingne. 

All the brides whose weddings have been put off by Covid may well feel that it was worth the wait to waft down the aisle in one of creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s impeccable white slimline sheaths. Especially one with a little train or elaborate beading covering the breast. That’s if the brides have saved up the £200,000 a couture wedding dress could set them back. 

One of Chiuri’s great skills lies in creating accessories that every woman can wear, or at least aspire to. The Italian designer dreamed up the Fendi Baguette – the tiny little It-bag that earned its own episode in Sex and the City and is still going strong. She then went to Valentino and fashioned the Rockstud shoe that became a gigantic bestseller.