While gold prices have steadily fallen to their lowest levels in the 20 years as businesses and governments seek more dynamic investments, and diamonds are still a girl's best friend, the yellow metal is high on the haute couture shopping list.

The swash buckling pirates of yore were more than happy with chests brimming over with gold `piece of eight' coins, but the yellow metal's allure in modern times lies in the design, not the quantity, feel experts.

"Gold is sexy. It's certainly not going out of fashion," said Vogue magazine senior fashion editor Kate Phelan. "Everyone wants a gold wedding ring and a diamond engagement ring -- It will always stay an important part of people's lifestyle," she added.

Italian fashion house Versace, best known for its bright designs oftenincorporates the colour of gold, saying that the lure of gold jewellery is in its detailed design pattern. "Beautifully designed gold jewellery will always be fantastic. It's all in the detail," a Versace spokeswoman said. "It's sexy in the eyes of our customers," she further added. Discovered more than 5,000 years ago, gold has graced every great ancient civilisation from the Egyptians to the Romans to Latin America's Mayans and Aztecs. The mediaeval alchemists' quest to turn base metals into gold was even the main catalyst behind modern-day chemistry.

While gold may swing in and out of fashion with Britain's trendy youth, it is a staple for the more mature crowd and there's no chance of it disappearing from the shopping lists of either, according to Soho fashion house Koh Samui.

"The old crowd will always go for gold in their scene," said Koh Samui jewellery buyer Myriam Coudox. "It is more seasonal for young fashionable people, but there is no danger of it going out of fashion for long," the buyeradded.

Carol Chapman, jewellery editor of the high fashion magazine Tatler, said ironically while central banks were selling their gold, the yellow metal was coming back into vogue among the fashion crowd. "Ironically jewellery designers are returning to yellow gold after a couple of years during which white metals like platinum were favoured because they looked more modern," Chapman said. "It looks so warm on skin," she said.

Some in the jewellery industry say governments which sell their gold only punish the public. "To the average man on the street gold is a tangible asset," said Southampton Jeweller Kim Rose, who has vowed to take the British government to court over its gold reserve auctions.

Mahesh Pattani, director of a leading London-based Indian jewellers B Tulshidas & Sons, said even though demand among his customers for gold as an investment was down because of government sales, the metal retained its favour as a decoration. "It will never go (completely) out of fashion in the Indiancommunity," Pattani emphasised.