Excess all areas: Painstakingly embroidered, extraordinarily rich and exceptionally lovely, this Balenciaga dress is the ultimate indulgence, says Susannah Frankel

The dress you see here costs £11,320. It is not, therefore, a fashion bar-gain, from whoever's perspective one chooses to look at it. But that is precisely the point. This is among the most unashamedly elitist garments of the autumn/winter 2006 season, as created by Nicolas Ghesquiÿre, designer at the unashamedly elitist - and universally revered - house of Balenciaga.

'The real idea at the beginning was to create a very obvious link between this season and the patrimony of Balenciaga. I was very focused on the fact that every outfit had to have a link with the history of the house,' Ghesquiÿre says. 'It could be the fabric. It could be the volume, of course, the shape, the embroidery or the print.'

The little pink dress in question is indeed indebted to the late Cristobal Balenciaga, the Basque couturier who founded the house that bears his name in 1937, although rethought to suit a contemporary woman's needs. In fact, both fabric and embroidery are exact replicas of an original Balenciaga design that dates back to 1961.

In the first place, then, the hugely extravagant silk wool jacquard was dutifully recreated. It was then hand-painted, metre by metre, to achieve the extraordinary richness of colour. The embroidery was executed by the esteemed Swiss house of Bischoff, purveyors of the finest needlework the world over. Bischoff was also responsible for the embroidery on the 1961, Cristobal Balenciaga design .

'I wanted to have my own silhouette, though,' Ghesquiÿre continues, 'and to push that silhouette to the extreme. I wanted to elongate the line and create something very artificial. It was like manipulating reality so that the clothes looked as if they came from somewhere that we don't know.'

With this in mind, the dramatic and highly idiosyncratic volume was achieved by a complex arrangement of underskirts, designed to hold the final layer of fabric in shape.

To say that all the above is labour-intensive would be something of an understatement - which, of course, explains the price.

Ghesquiÿre himself is first to admit that this approach is rarefied as are many of the clothes that spring from it. 'It's not something that' s easy to wear, obviously, but it's also not so very spectacular and it was interesting for me to play with that balance,' he says.

More importantly, if the market for designer fashion has become saturated to the point where overexposure is a very real threat and competition has never been so fierce, it makes sound commercial sense also. The way forward for Balenciaga - and the brand is not alone --is to create work that is more special and aspirational still, in collaboration with craftspeople more commonly associated with the haute couture (where everything is executed by hand) than the ready-to-wear which is positively humble by comparison.

'We also worked with Lesage,' Ghesquiÿre continues - La Maison Lesage being the most sought-after supplier of lavish jewelled and beaded embroideries created entirely by hand.

'The proximity of the ateliers - the access to those people who listen to you and execute your ideas quickly and with great skill - is the most precious thing for a ready-to-wear designer, because it encourages creativity,' Ghesquiÿre explains. 'Of course, I respect the industrial side of things too; I love the industry, especially in Italy where it's hi-tech. The best scenario is this meeting between a brain, hand-worked elaboration and manufacturing with industry. There should always be a touch of industry in a handcrafted dress or a touch of craft in an industrially created dress.'

In Italy, Dolce & Gabbana followed a similar path, finishing its collection with a sequence of opulent, feathered and embroidered gowns inspired by the pomp and grandeur of the Napoleonic period. 'The precious support of two of the most important and well-known embroidering houses in France, Lesage and Hurel, helped us to create one-of-a-kind special pieces for women clients who love to live fairy-tale nights,' the designers state, on typically baroque form. 'Women are today becoming more demanding about fashion, quality and fabrics. The brand is not the only issue any more. When they buy a garment or a gown by a designer, they want to experience high quality and research.'

It seems not insignificant that the work of the petites mains - the men and women in pristine white coats who staff the ateliers in the French fashion capital - seemed, for a time, to be at risk of dying out entirely; the concept is lovely but anachronistic nonetheless.

To begin with, there are now only about 200 haute couture clients in the world. What's more, the age of the technicians in question - many of whom trained alongside the likes of Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in the 1940s and 1950s - decrees that retirement is high on the agenda.

It seems nothing if not apposite, then, that in 2002 Chanel (today flourishing under the creative direction of Karl Lagerfeld) bought Lesage - and also the costume jeweller Desrues, the milliner Michel, Massaro the shoe-maker and Lemarie, supplier of feathers and silk flowers - to ensure their survival and to encourage a new generation to complete their apprenticeships there.

Four years down the line, and it is not only Balenciaga and Dolce & Gabbana that have employed their illustrious services for the ready-to-wear, but also Yves Saint Laurent and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Chanel itself.

It all makes for extravagant viewing. Such luxury is unusual, even for those lucky enough to have wardrobes jam-packed with designer clothing. For those of us whose budgets don't extend to spending more than £10,000 on such unashamedly indulgent sweet nothings, meanwhile, merely marvelling at the loveliness of them will have to suffice.

Photographer Katya de Grunwald

Stylist Gemma Hayward

Model Marija at Premier

Hair Daniel Dyer at Pearle using Redken

Make-up Claudine Henderson at Nakedartist.com using Mac

Stylist's assistant Harriet Davies

Pink embroidered dress £11,320, white hat £1,035, wedge ankle boots £700; all Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquiÿre, from Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London W1, 08708 377 377. Tights £23, by Wolford; stockist enquiries 020-7529 3000