Before we start, I’d like to emphasise that I have nothing but sympathy for all the makeup artists, fashion stylists and hairdressers (to say nothing of the nominees) who are missing their moments in the sun through the cancellation at this month’s Golden Globes — and possibly of next month’s Oscars — due to the writers’ strike. As is the case in every battle, it’s the innocent folk who suffer; and no matter what the outcome of the strikes may be, I think we can guarantee that the big studios will survive comfortably.

The furore about the cancellations would wreak on Los Angeles, with one estimate suggesting it will cost the city at least $200m if the Oscars are scrapped because these events are more effective than advertisements in terms of brand recognition.

Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel that a year’s respite from the annual red carpet hoo-hah would do the fashion industry some good in the long term. The assumed importance of celebrity has been taken to such extremes in the fashion world that the shows now seem to be more about the designer showing off which actresses and pop stars they can get in the front row than the clothes on the runway.

When designers start to value celebrities over actual customers, the clothes become more expensive, more impractical and seemingly more irrelevant than ever. Next week will be an interesting case in point, with the autumn/winter couture shows taking place in Paris - an occasion when the fashion world kowtows to celebrity with more obsequiousness. Because these shows happen in the middle of the award season, designers overtly cater to the paparazzi-seeking celebrity, in the hope that the dresses will be ripped straight off the catwalk and on to some actress’s back for the Vanity Fair Oscars party.

Of course, even if the Oscars are cancelled, designers are never going to make strictly practical clothes. But just as there is a certain kind of “Oscar acting” (overemotional, usually playing someone with a handicap, at least one big mid-movie speech), so there is a kind of “Oscar fashion” (long, tight, beige). If the diminution of the awards ceremony means the abolition of both these things, surely that is no bad thing.