Dear Ozwald, That frocks are not terribly important is self-evident. The very fact of haute couture requires an imaginative high-jump: I can see well beyond the 'Gor blimey you wouldn't catch me dead in a £30,000 tablecloth,' line of argument. However, I think haute couture is fundamentally fraudulent. It bears little relation to the high street or even to cutting-edge fashion. It largely exists to diddle the masses into buying perfume and Y-fronts, and a few sad fools with rich husbands and damaged egos into squeezing themselves into harlequin suits. It's there to function as an in-house PR.