The British, it seems, have assiduously followed European fashion trends for years. It now turns out that it may have been for centuries.

Stylish Anglo-Saxon women, for example, wore front-fastening coats clasped with brooches that were common on the Continent at the time and would not be completely out of place on the catwalks of Paris today.

Penelope Walton Rogers is an archaeologist who has undertaken a significant study of Anglo-Saxon graves and settlements and come up with some surprising findings.

Evidence pieced together from more than 1,700 graves shows that followers of fashion in the middle of the 6th century wore outfits typical of northern France and territories west of the Rhine.

Many of the fashions worn by Anglo-Saxon women might have felt like the height of style but would they still impress in 2007? Worn as a complete ensemble they might resemble the robes of an obscure religious sect, but a few details are so bang on trend that one wonders if modern designers have resorted to grave-digging for inspiration.

The embellished trims prefigure Chanel’s autumn/winter 2007 couture collection, while the thin belt worn to create definition on a long linen dress is reminiscent of Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.

Ms Rogers’s conclusions are based on excavations of cemeteries from Co Durham to Dorset, Warwickshire to East Anglia. “To reach the point where simple statements such as these can be made about early Anglo-Saxon dress has taken several decades of research,” she said.

Few artistic images of the human figure have survived from the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries. But the Anglo-

Saxons helpfully preferred burials to cremation and placed the bodies of the dead in their graves fully clothed.

Although no garments have been found intact, some small areas of fabric have survived where the clothes were fastened.

Ms Rogers said: “If you were to cut out a square centimetre from one of your own garments, you would have in your hand all that was needed to reconstruct the complete fabric. And so it is with Anglo-Saxon remains. In that small square is all the technical information, the weave structure, weave density, yarn type . . . the identity of the raw material and even, in extremely well-preserved pieces, the dye.”

Details of the study are published today in the journal British Archaeology.

Mike Pitts, the journal’s editor, said: “I think it’s a really interesting, impressive and important piece of work. Apart from the interest for Anglo-Saxon Britain, her work holds out promise for other periods. We can go right back to the appearance of the first metal in Britain, shortly after Stonehenge was built, around 2,400BC.”

Barney Sloane, head of the English Heritage Historic Environment Commissions, which funded the research, said: “By bringing together the painstaking analysis of tiny traces of textile, brooches and other items of dress excavated across the country over the decades, the project illuminates the lives of Anglo-Saxon women otherwise lost to history and presents a striking overview on fashion, immigration, identity and culture in an England of 1,400 years ago,” he said.

The British have long been fascinated by French fashion and, by extension, French women. One explanation for the long-standing love affair is that while we traditionally associate fashion with vanity, the French regard it as an important cultural expression.

It was in the 17th century that France built its chic reputation and the periodical Mercure Galant pioneered the concept of fashion seasons. After 1660 female fashion in England was strongly influenced by exotic French motifs such as wigs, decorative face patches, ribbons and lace; a look that peaked with Marie Antoinette in the late 18th century.

Haute couture through the ages

— The flowing A-line cut of the three-quarter length coats, fastened with a brooch, hang conservatively. They are cinched in at the waist but they do not reveal too much so that plenty is left to the imagination

— Raised trimlines plunge vertically and are enhanced with extra pieces of material or they use of a variety of different colours

— The round neckline of the Anglo-Saxons has clearly been transferred with ease to the French catwalk

— Modesty appears to be an important theme, with skirtlines plunging to the floor

— Natural dies and uncoloured fibres are very much in tune with today’s hemp-wearing environmentalists

— Brooches and pins were primarily funtional. It has been possible to identify the materials that these brooches once clasped. Small patches of fabric have been preserved around the fastenings by the salts of the metals from which the brooches were made

Explore Women

• Fashion

• Beauty

• Diet & Fitness

• Relationships

• Families

• Celebrity

• Body & Soul

• The Way We Live

Times recommends

• The dirty weekend guide to Europe
• Sharing the McCanns’ hell
• Steve Coogan, weathering the storms