Something interesting is happening at Gucci. And I don’t just mean the presence of three formidable blondes – Debbie Harry, Kirsten Dunst and Julia Garner – in the front row.

The markets are beating the fashion chatterati. While the latter has been mainly lukewarm about newcomer Sabato De Sarno’s collections, his power to shape fashion, in general, is proving quite a force. Take the popularity of burgundy patents this autumn and, often, burgundy patents – you can see them all over the place, from Zara to Bash. And it all started with de Sarno’s first collection for Gucci a year ago. Then there are his lace-trimmed leather slip dresses, versions of which I spotted in Marks & Spencer’s showroom a couple of weeks ago.

Influencing the high street isn’t quite the same as waking up your own market: Gucci’s decline in revenue this year alone has been vertigo-inducing – a 20 per cent drop in sales recorded in the first quarter of 2024. But insiders have long argued this isn’t De Sarno’s fault. For reasons beyond most people’s ken, his collections have taken an inordinately long time to reach Gucci’s stores. The items that aren’t selling are old stock.

Given the brand’s various travails - and the slowdown in sales that’s affecting many other fashion labels - De Sarno seemed in high spirits after his spring/summer show on Friday. And yes, he said backstage, he had noticed how widely others had already picked up some of his ideas. While that’s gratifying, his priority, he says, is fleshing out a wardrobe of what he calls “casual grandeur”. Some of it’s probably too grand for cash-strapped Europeans, but you can already see Middle Eastern and Chinese clients working their winter 2024 Gucci casual grandeur in the front row.