AS THE world’s costliest and arguably most creative clothes float down the catwalks during Paris couture week, one spectre hovers over the proceedings.

Cristóbal Balenciaga, the Spanish couturier who fled his homeland in 1936 during the civil war, died more than 30 years ago, but his work continues to inspire. The ready-to-wear shows in March were full of it and the couture collections are proving just as susceptible.

Now that a retrospective has just opened next to the Louvre, we can look forward to even more looking backward.

The “Balenciaga effect” was even present at Chanel, a house with its own impressive archive. Karl Lagerfeld’s thickly jewelled matador evening jacket was eerily reminiscent of one in the exhibition. So were stiff flounces cascading down the back of a mini-shift, the curved hems and double-layer cocktail dresses in stiff silks, the cap sleeves and half-sleeves worn with elbow or armpit-length gloves, boucle jackets and bell-shaped skirts.

If one ignored what was going on below the thigh (Lagerfeld is on a mission to encase his models’ legs in wrinkly leather, and everything was accessorised with bulky leather or denim thigh-high wader boots), it was spectacularly beautiful.

Dresses that could have been lumpy in the hands of a lesser atelier seemed to float in their own flawless sense of space. When the audience, seated in the middle of the circular catwalk, was rotated for the finale, it was as if Lagerfeld had staged his own exhibition. The gossip among the drivers was that the catwalk had taken two weeks to construct. That must be where the budget for the air-conditioning went.

Valentino, now in his 70s, has been toiling to make women more elegant for long enough to have socialised with Balenciaga. Not that he ever did. Balenciaga was a reclusive purist while Valentino loves entertaining clients, who range from well-preserved socialites to Gwyneth Paltrow and Elizabeth Hurley.

No errant breast has ever strayed from a Valentino bodice. His beautifully crafted evening dresses have transformed many an overexposed starlet into a Hollywood princess. The wonder is that, after more than 40 years, he continues to tap into fashion’s latest trends — and the current trend is Balenciaga.

This means icily structural shapes, minimal embellishment and silhouettes that stand at a distance from a woman’s body. In this, Valentino acquitted himself pretty well. He has always loved a lampshade-shaped skirt, and out they swung in jewelled wools that looked oppressive in the Parisian heatwave, but may come into their own during the Siberian blasts that the Valentino customer occasionally endures.

The skirts were partnered by high-necked, wasp-waisted jackets — part of fashion’s new modesty campaign — thick black tights and fur trims; but his greatest success was the Infanta-style evening dresses: gorgeous, stiff satins and brocades that flared from just below the bust, and sometimes had tiny matching sable-trimmed boleros.

Whether the world’s red carpet sirens are ready to give up their standard-issue frocks remains to be seen. Valentino himself didn’t seem entirely convinced — for there, wafting between those stately Infanta dresses, was the odd suction-powered number. Even in fashion, it seems, revolutions can be dreadfully slow to ignite.

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