At the recent Paris Couture Week, did the grey suit really take centre stage?

A model presents a look from the Thom Browne couture collection. Photo: The New York Times

In 1955 the idea of the grey flannel suit as the symbol of the soul-deadened corporate drone entered the American lexicon thanks to Sloan Wilson’s novel, making it pretty much impossible to look at that particular item of clothing in a neutral way ever again.

It became the stand-in for our skewed work-life balance, the triumph of business over imagination. It got, it’s fair to say, a bad rep.