Stephane Rolland, who already designs the regular Scherrer Haute Couture pieces, has now also lent his talents to a men's collection, which will premiere alongside the women's line in the Carousel du Louvre on July 10. A total of 15 men's looks will be shown.

"There's a consensus floating around that couture is on the way out," says Moufarrige. "But when I saw the client list at Scherrer I was shocked. There is an average age of 32."

To have clients so young is certainly impressive in the world of couture, but according to Moufarrige, it's not really that surprising. "The trend of youth is a proven phenomenon," he says. "Eight years ago people in fashion houses never thought that 25-year-olds had money to buy a full outfit."

And Scherrer found that with hip, young and wealthy couture-buying female clients generally come affluent boyfriends and husbands.

Many of the male partners tended to be as enthusiastic about fashion as their other halves, and began requesting their own pieces, which were duly produced for between $8,000 to $12,000 a pop. Thus, a full-fledged couture concept was born.

Men in couture is nothing new of course. Andre Leon-Talley and Hedi Slimane have both had clothes made at the Chanel atelier, and bespoke clothing is seeing a huge revival.

The most famous and exaggerated example of (questionably) masculine couture was the hammed-up, ultra-camp collection Jean-Paul Gaultier showed the season before he launched his existing couture line.

Tanel, Gaultier's longtime muse, still makes his presence felt on the couture runway.

Moufarrige recognizes that this is still a relatively uncharted area, but it's not the first time he's gone out on a fashion limb.

"I'm known for taking risks, for being controversial -- like replacing Karl Lagerfeld at Chloe with a young designer called Stella McCartney," he reminds us.

He's certainly not reckless though, and is convinced that a market exists for Scherrer's one-of-a-kind creations for men. "I'm a businessman -- I want to make money!"