If you work in fashion, you’re likely to be familiar with the breakfast menu of every restaurant in your vicinity. After a decade in the industry – today, I’m monocle’s fashion director – I learnt a few things: where to get the best shakshuka in London, which restaurant is the most creative with its breakfast and which one overdoes it with the cream in its scrambled eggs. I have also seen the popularity of “breakfast hour” (a US tradition adopted by Londoners) fluctuate.

Before the pandemic, the industry’s most productive meeting window was between 08.00 and 10.00, a time when connections were forged, deals clinched and plans hatched. This wasn’t limited to the fashion industry: entrepreneurs met investors, bankers met private clients and expense accounts were limbered up without fear of the bill being too big.

I loved it – a breakfast meeting finds you relatively clear-headed, doesn’t last as long as lunch or dinner and, while the food is rarely life-changing, there’s less room for error if you’re ordering poached eggs.

But breakfast hour has been losing popularity. Fewer brands are willing to host group breakfasts and invitations are switching to 11.00 coffee dates or worse – virtual meetings on platforms such as Zoom.

Reduced budgets might explain the shift but it’s also a case of people becoming less willing to leave their house and come into town in a timely manner – no doubt a side-effect of the work-from-home trend and, in the world of fashion, the unfortunate rise of intermittent fasting. Colleagues across the pond and ever lark-like Australians seem to be the only ones who still set their alarms and even love to squeeze in a workout before their 08.00 appointments.

“Breakfast is for Americans,” a UK newspaper editor tells me, arguing that Londoners should have never jumped on the breakfast bandwagon. “I only accept lunch or dinner invitations.” Italians, who prefer to have a quick espresso at their local pasticceria, and the French, who grab a croissant on their way to work, seem to be in broad agreement.

We might never go back to a time when breakfast rooms fill up like they used to but at least now the best tables are easier to secure and the service is speedier. For those still open to a business breakfast, there are rules: make sure to show up early, keep the small talk brief and order smart. And whether you’re working in fashion or not, there’s no excuse for looking like you just rolled out of bed. A little effort goes a long way.