What the world needs now is love, sweet love and Pierpaolo Piccioli is proving just the man to deliver it. Season after season, the ravishingly romantic confections he creates for the House of Valentino have the fashion pack in such a swoon they are running out of superlatives. When it comes to Hollywood, serious actors who usually wear black and a scowl on the red carpet (cue Frances McDormand) suddenly show up in his capricious colour clashes and look like they are enjoying themselves.

As for clients at their most demanding, many a couturier can whip up a wedding dress for an ingenue, yet this 52-year-old married father of three is also the go-to guy for second-time-around brides (many congratulations, Gwyneth Paltrow.) And second-time-around brides can be very hard to please.