According to British newspaper, The Independent, 'ski wear has become so cool, soon you won't have to even go near a mountain' (sic).

If you were gutted when C&A closed, this may not be of much interest to you, but it does ring true that style is a concept that once seemed to bypass ski wear altogether.

'It always amazed me how you could travel to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world only to find that everyone there was dressed like a liquorice allsort,' says Paula Reed of In Style magazine. 'The whole thing was a style outrage - the jumpsuits, the Gary Numan-style asymmetric colour blocks, all that neon...'

Avril Mair of i-D magazine takes a similar line. 'Nowadays, it (skiing) isn't an elite activity anymore. There has to be a way of differentiating yourself on the slopes from the masses, who can wear all the cheap, nasty clothes they want.'

Note the 'cheap and nasty' jibe. Still there's advice for fashion wanabees on the mountain. Prada and Versace apparently have their own ski wear lines and this season Chanel have joined in with their own collection of parkas, goggles, helmets and snow boots. Now Dolce and Gabbana have joined the fray with a range of coloured goggles, while Benetton took it a step further with a range of skis and matching boots in contemporary colours.

Following sightings of Eminem and David Beckham in white designer Alfa Industries ski jackets, even design bible Wallpaper* has included ski wear in its sports supplement.

Many observers put the change down to the rise of snowboarding and the street style it brought to the mountain. This strikes us as highly ironic - who would have thought snowboarders would have led to the slopes becoming better dressed?

Still, if all this talk of designer outfits gets you depressed, don't forget that most Prada ski jackets are worn by people still trying to master the snow-plough. We think real mountain style is about coming down the mountain, rather than sipping cocktails and talking about it.