Forty years ago, Yves Saint Laurent and his hip female muses, leggy blonde Betty Catroux and feisty redhead Loulou de la Falaise, caused a sensation by arriving at the launch of the designer’s Rive Gauche London boutique sharply dressed à la Saharienne, showing off his African-themed ready-to-wear collection.

An appreciative mob greeted the khaki-clad trio and the excitement that surrounded the look is likely to recur next week when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth instalment of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster series, closes the Cannes Film Festival, complete with an entire “village of Peruvians” that costume designer Mary Zophres draped with indigenous, hand-loomed fabric. As film meets fashion, expect “expedition dressing” to become one of the style watchwords of the summer, helped by the number of designers who have found inspiration in the chic separates Saint Laurent first transferred from the jungle to the catwalk.