My mentor in all things fashion, a Parisienne buyer who prefers to remain unnamed, once confidently asserted in her usual grandiose manner, "You know that fashion is over when designers start relying on irony." She was referring to the "it's cool because it isn't, you probably wouldn't understand" school of thought that is the realm of the least self-aware hipster.

Since Gucci, Balenciaga and their ilk started to follow the pied piper of Vetements in that direction in the mid-2010s, admittedly with great success, I had to ask her "What comes after irony?"

"Well," my friend said with a sigh, "whatever will sell, but what will people buy after you have made a mockery of style?"