To compete in today's market, you need an evening event with a celebrity designer, an art exhibition or, better still, a nightclub out the back.

The rise of the celebrity designer and huge media coverage are two big trends of the past 25 years.

Celebrity designers insinuate their trademark flourishes and plantings go in and out of fashion.

The lurch into postmodernism and the age of celebrity designers, whose quirky personalities seemed as important as the actual designs, was anathema to him.

After all, instead of going to fashion school and learning to cut and drape, celebrity designers serve their apprenticeships by gaining fame and building that all-important potential customer base.