It became increasingly clear, as the autumn/winter 2008 ready-to-wear season drew to a close last weekend in Paris, that these days 90 per cent of what you see in contemporary fashion is not, in fact, what you get.

That bobbed, shaded, skinny lady in the front row at Lanvin? Not American Vogue editor Anna Wintour at all but an impersonator, the real Ms Wintour having flown back to the US in protest at the length of the European season.