The Cannes Film Festival was in full red-carpet swing; the billionaires were back in Sun Valley; and in Paris – “It’s like a school reunion, no?” said Carine Roitfeld, French fashion editor, flicking her veil of hair off her black-lined eyes and glancing around at the Dior show as the first live couture week in more than a year began in Paris.

The gang was back, in a specially constructed box, as always, in the gardens of the Musée Rodin, as attendees who had not seen one another since early last year embraced in delight. Roitfeld looked amused, if not entirely pleased, about the whole thing.