In Europe, the Germans have invested millions in research since the mid-1990s. (Not surprisingly, that research told them to junk their native phrase "Kundenindividuelle Massenproduktion" in favour of mass customisation.) In Hamburg, C&A offers e-couture for men's suits, with more than 30 smaller retailers offering it throughout the country. C&A is part of a bigger European research project: e-tailor. Funded in part by the EU, and involving companies from Greece, Spain, France and Belgium among others, it aims to explore and invest in new technologies. In Holland, www.passen.com offers digital tailoring for men and women in Amsterdam, Maastricht and the Hague.

Back home, this high-tech approach is available only to the armed forces, where a military outfitter, Hobson and Sons, is successfully e-tailoring officers' kit to the most stringent standard using full mechanisation. (Dress trousers, for example, must hang so they touch the third shoelace. The first or second is unacceptable.) The high street, however, remains unchanged, although Selfridges, M&S, and the Arcadia group, which comprises Topshop and Burton, have begun feasibility studies. At present, a pair of black wool trousers in M&S costs about £45; tailor-made, they might cost £80. But as technology develops, prices will fall.

"The brave new retailing world is already here," says Suzanne Tide-Frater, the head of fashion direction at Selfridges. "It is all part of the search for individuality and it's the end of being bog-standard. People have so much money to spend and often they can't do it." She thinks the fashion market will expand if mass customisation takes off. "There will be the new bespoke market for basics, like a capsule wardrobe of essential pieces that you order and wait for. That's investment dressing. Then there will be the 'Oh-my-God-I-want-it-now' part. I call this emotional fashion. That will always be ready-to-wear, offering instant gratification.

The future certainly looks like being bespoke - part of a shift towards the personal. Tom Ford at Gucci is introducing custom tailoring this season, as is Alexander McQueen. But the mass market is largely uncharted territory. What the industry analysts are talking about is nothing less than the democratisation of fashion; the extension of privilege. At last, the sans-culottes can have culottes that fit. Not since Christian Dior brought in the New Look of 1947 with his nipped waist and generous skirts, and Mary Quant the miniskirt, has fashion contemplated such a seismic shift.