The most coveted invitation in the haute couture shows which started this weekend will be to Yves Saint Laurent`s farewell to fashion at the Centre Georges Pompidou in the heart of Paris on Tuesday evening.
The glittering gala event, which falls on the 40th anniversary of the designer`s first collection under his own name, will be the climax of the season as well as the end of an era.
More than 1,500 invitations bearing a photo of the couturier`s fetish heart-shaped jewel have been sent out to press, celebrities and faithful clientele for the show, which is also to be a retrospective of his career as well as his final collection, for summer 2002.
The occasion, likely to be even more emotionally charged than the press conference on January 7 when Saint Laurent announced his retirement, will be especially poignant for the house`s 150 employees, who will also be in the audience. The closure of the couture side of the business will be the end of their existing jobs even if they are redeployed.
Saint Laurent`s decision to retire did not come entirely as a surprise to insiders in the fashion world. Nor had anyone expected the couture house would go on without him.
But not everyone shares the sentiments of Saint Laurent`s righthand man Pierre Berge that this spells the beginning of the end for couture, now down to only 11 houses against more than twice that in the 1980s.
"Haute couture is living its final days. Haute couture is designed to accompany a life style which had its apogee before the war, and after the war it was given a new lease of life thanks to Christian Dior, Chanel and Saint Laurent, but that life style no longer exists," Berge said.
"We are no longer in the epoch of couture houses, but the epoch of jeans and Nike," he went on, adding that Saint Laurent "feels increasingly ill at ease in a profession which is only haute couture by name" in what was interpreted as a reference to couture`s more outrageous exponents -- the likes of John Galliano at Dior.
But Bernard Arnault, head of the global luxury giant Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, begged to differ in an interview published in the daily Le Figaro on Saturday.

Arnault, whose LVMH has a stable of couture houses including Dior, Christian Lacroix and Givenchy, acknowledged "Haute couture isn`t at all what it was 20 years ago, but it will not cease to be with the departure of one couturier, however talented... Did painting stop with the death of Matisse?"
In his view, couture bestows precious cachet on a brand like Dior.
"The great French couture houses are the only ones on the planet to realise the dream associated with haute couture. And they are the only ones to do it with a global network, which it would be almost impossible to start again from scratch in the light of the colossal investments that would imply."
"But if these brands continue to build their universe around their unique position as couture houses, they will have a brilliant future ahead of them."
"Haute couture will continue in the 21st century with such great couturiers as Karl Lagerfeld (Chanel), John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier and the others."
And he could not resist a side swipe at the rival luxury empire of Francois Pinault, which owns the Saint Laurent label (minus couture), with the ready-to-wear line designed by Tom Ford of Gucci. "The brand has lost its privileged status as a couture name," he commented.
Whoever turns out to be right about the chances of survival of couture, the certainty is that Tuesday night will be the last of a run of great vintages from the man who liberated women`s clothing with his trousers suits, safari jackets, trench coats and tuxedos.
Although the contents of the show are a closely guarded secret, the programme is bound to include such classics as Saint Laurent`s Van Gogh inspired embroidered bolero jackets.
All the items, which will subsequently go on sale, will have a special label identifying them for posterity. Many customers have already put in their orders to get their hands on a piece of history.
After the show, guests will be treated to a lavish reception at the top floor restaurant of the Pompidou centre, one of the French capital`s 20th century landmarks, which houses modern art. Saint Laurent and Berge, both passionate about art, helped finance the recent refurbishment of the centre`s galleries.
Fashion fans without the precious invitation will be able to watch the show on giant screens in the square outside.
Berge has determined that the last-ever Saint Laurent show will not be "sad" but an appropriate send-off for the designer "who gave women access to a universe that had been denied them." Bureau Report