Catastrophic!

When Rachel Zoe, stylist for Demi Moore and many other A-listers, was contacted for a comment about the Golden Globes farrago, she had already given up on a bad job and headed to Hawaii.

A holiday would normally be unimaginable for a stylist during award season, but this year the whole fashion industry is all at sea.

The cancellation of the Golden Globes annual frockfest is a major blow and, if other award shows are cancelled, it could become a fashion catastrophe.

Valentino estimates that Julia Roberts's appearance in one of its gowns at the 2001 Oscars - the year she won Best Actress for Erin Brockovich - was worth $25m in media coverage.

Keira Knightley had reportedly requested a dress from Chanel for this year's Globes, while Giorgio Armani had made a customised dress for Cate Blanchett, who is pregnant.

For big names such as Chanel, Dior and Versace, the red carpet works in two ways. The first is brand recognition. Pictures of Nicole Kidman in Dior won't sell much couture, but they do make a wider audience lust after Dior lipsticks, scents and other affordable items.

Jessica Alba proved this at last year's Globes, when photos of the actress using Dior make-up led to a sales jump of her 'Beige Maniac' lip gloss in the following weeks.

The second impact is on the more nebulous flow of seasonal trends. Cameron Diaz wore Valentino to both the Oscars and Globes last year. While few of us opted to wear floor-length ruffles or frocks with trains as a result of her (actually rather horrible) red-carpet outfits, a liking for the easier elements of her looks - white as a colour of choice, and belted dresses - were both big trends in 2007.

Bony models on catwalks may sell concepts to fashion editors, but for most of us it's a flick through Grazia and the chance to see the clothes on real women that sells the styles. Every time belts or white are mentioned in the media after the awards, there's a good chance Diaz's photo will be used as illustration.

If we don't get that type of picture, we don't get this season's fashion. It also perpetuates the idea that Valentino is both on-trend and loved by celebrities.

The real losers are new and smaller designers. Chanel can whack a few ads in Vogue if it's worried about its media profile. But the free coverage given by the red carpet is irreplaceable for young talent.

No one would have heard of labels such as Marchesa, Zac Posen and Roland Mouret without pictures of Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson which raised the labels' profile from odd mentions in fashion magazines to front-page news.

Monique Lhuillier dresses stars such as Katie Holmes and Hilary Swank, but relies on awards to raise awareness of her brand. "They are very important for designers like me," said Lhuillier, who had five frocks on hold for celebrities to wear at the ceremony. "It's the first major awards show in the season. It sets a lot of trends."

The cancellation of this week's red carpet also represents an infuriating waste. Reem Acra, whose couture frocks cost from $30,000 to $200,000, had made four customised dresses for the Globes after weeks of fittings. "It's a lot of back and forth and tension and pressure and changing the colour and studying the celebrities."

Hopefully the writers' strike will be settled before the Oscars. If not, rather than telling us to wear belts, fashion designers may be tightening their own.