The Alsatian dogs and scanning machines outside the Chanel show this morning were a sobering reality of haute couture, which instinctively aims to weave an alternative, escapist view of the world.

The clients remain mostly inured.They glide, in a giant puff of Chanel Number 5 and unseasonally warm tweed suits, from tinted window limo to front row, before disappearing to their yachts for the summer.???90 per cent of them no longer come to fittings,???Karl Lagerfeld told me after the show.???Today???s rich make the rich of the past look poor."

Fittings, the process during which clients are measured for their outfits and discussions of alternative lengths and colours are delicately negotiated, were once a vital interface between customer and those who work for a fashion house.These days, Chanel goes to the clients, wherever in the world they may happen to be.And Karl Lagerfeld has, he revealed, ???a no contact with the clients??? clause in his contract.Wise move.He is 83 and has a work-load that would slay a carthorse.

chanel all the looks

If the fitting rooms at Chanel???s Rue Cambon head-quarters are emptier than in days gone past, the work-rooms, or ateliers, are busier than ever.Chanel now has four, is planning to open a fifth, and employs 200 ???petites mains???(seamstresses).In this era of fast fashion, couture is more in demand than at any time previously.

Celebrities at Chanel Couture

To emphasise this human aspect of fashion, which so often seems hung up on technology and digital ???innovation???, Lagerfeld installed the petits mains on the catwalk, along with their tailoring dummies, bolts of fabric, swatches of beading, tape measures and fit-models (extraordinarily patient house models who stand silently for hours while canvas toiles are built onto them).

At first, under the gaze of the audience, the petites mains, with their freshly blow dried hair, looked understandably self-conscious, but as the show got underway, and the glossy big name models (Edie Campbell, Erin Wasson, Mariacarla Boscono) strode past with their Toulouse Lautrec hair that made them 2 metres high, Belle ??poque coats and long skirts, they forgot the inquisitive stares and busied themselves with their tiny stitches and imperceptible adjustments to the half-finished clothes on the dummies.

What struck me is how normal these petites mains look ??? they could be bank tellers or working in a call centre.Instead they shape miracles with tulle and tweed, translating Lagerfeld???s already precise sketches into the exquisitely refined finished article.???They are passionate ??? and they are young,"said Lagerfeld, who has a plenty-of-contact clause when it comes to his ateliers.???People sometimes dismiss couture as frivolous luxury.But it also represents jobs."

Belle ??poque is not quite right.It???s more like Karl ??poque: an idea of an idea.Sweeping hemlines worn with cut away frock coats, with curved backs that resembled ducking birds??? tails.These were worn with elbow length gloves and thigh high ruched boots -barely a millimeter of flesh on display - and brought to mind early 20th century silhouettes, with a generous side order of Edwardian opulence.Shoulders were sharp and bevelled like glass mirrors ??? an extraordinary, how-did-they-do- that? couture effect.Jewelled silk flower appliques were scattered across tweeds and the linings of jackets like confetti.

What struck me is how normal these petites mains look ??? they could be bank tellers or working in a call centre.

The latter were sometimes achieved with lasers.???You could never get those precise shapes without,??? explained Lagerfeld.This is an instance of traditional couture techniques walking glove -in -hand with modern technology.Most of the fabrics don???t exist outside Chanel???s ateliers ??? they are created for couture.

It???s often said that they don???t make clothes like they used to -and that???s true.Lagerfeld, no slouch when it comes to the history of fashion, believes couture clothes today are often of a much higher standard than in the past.I???m inclined to agree, but a trip to the fashion museum is an appealing way to confirm his view either way.

Couture fashion week flash back