Cate Blanchett will be one of the Hollywood stars hobnobbing with global leaders and industry captains in Davos. Credit:AP While ostensibly being here to talk business and network, with so many high net-worth individuals clustered into one place, the potential for bacchanalian excess is endless. And the bar bills are from another planet altogether. The global elite's talent for obfuscation - and the cocoon of 5,000 Swiss security forces drafted in for the week - means what happens behind the scenes at Davos is a complex warren to explore. Discreet dinners and lunches in remote mountain chalets are de rigueur, where world leaders and captains of industry rub shoulders with the likes of Bono and Leonardo DiCaprio. Then there are the evening drinks parties, known in Davos-speak as "nightcaps". But before any of this, one requires the right pass. Aside from footwear - note Theresa May's shopping trip for a chic pair of £120 ($210) Sorel snow boots last week - the other two prized social indicators in Davos are the colour of badge hanging around your neck and the calibre of party invite in your pocket. The coveted all-access pass

White with a hologram is the coveted access-all-areas badge that opens any door in and around the conference, which companies pay around £450,000 to be affiliated with. Beyond that are orange badges for assistants and journalists used to rattling the golden cage, if not actually stepping inside it; green is for the entourage of the famous. Presidnet Trump is set to arrive at the World Economic Forum later this week. Credit:Andrew Harrer As for the parties, chief among the perennial hot ticket events is the bash thrown by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and British financier Nat Rothschild at the oligarch's palatial chalet, a 15-minute chauffeur-driven car ride up the mountain from Davos. A former assistant to US economist Nouriel Roubini has described Deripaska's parties as "endless streams of the finest champagne, vodka and Russian caviar amid dancing Cossacks and beautiful Russian models". In 2015, things became so raucous that the police were called in to calm it down. Security is tight in Davos. Credit:AP

Then there is the shindig hosted by Matthew Freud, the British PR guru, in a private chalet behind the art nouveau Schatzalp Hotel, a former sanatorium reached by a funicular from the centre of Davos. Last year, David Cameron, George Osborne and Bill Gates were all spotted rubbing shoulders there. Prior to his spectacular downfall last summer, Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, the investor turned short-lived adviser to Donald Trump, hosted a regular reception at the Hotel Europe, which was renowned for the eye-wateringly expensive bottles of Krug and Bordeaux he served. At this year's event, Facebook is hiring a plot of land belonging to the Kirchner Museum and building a specially designed three-storey house to host events put on by founder Mark Zuckerberg. Credit:AP It is getting more decadent with each passing year A Davos regular. A modern theme of Davos is corporations taking over its high street shops for the entirety of the week to host their own parties. This year the social network and digital currency firm Hub Culture has rented a hair salon and built a temporary "Ice House" on its roof - as well as flying in five chefs trained by the Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse, who runs a restaurant in London's Dorchester hotel.

Facebook, meanwhile, is hiring a plot of land belonging to the Kirchner Museum and building a specially designed three-storey house to host events put on by founder Mark Zuckerberg. Prior to his spectacular downfall, Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, the investor turned short-lived adviser to Donald Trump, hosted a regular reception, complete with expensive bottles of Krug and Bordeaux. Credit:ARIEL SCHALIT 'A lot of middle-aged men in suits dancing around awkwardly' Last year's hottest party was hosted by the US tech communications giant Salesforce, which was attempting to outdo Google, which had previously hired the Ameron Swiss Mountain Hotel where guests sipped Roederer champagne and nibbled on shark canapes while the actor Idris Elba took to the decks. "It is getting more decadent with each passing year," says one Davos regular, who has attended for the past five. "More money is spent and more companies want to promote themselves."

However, the best parties, he says, often sound far more exciting than they actually are. "I would describe the atmosphere at some of these things as pretty random. It is a lot of middle-aged men in suits dancing around awkwardly. A lot of people don't actually really know each other. Some people obviously hit it pretty hard, but most of us have to get up the next day at 7am." The Swedish economist Prof Erik Berglof, who is director of the institute of global affairs at the London School of Economics, and has been coming to Davos for the past 18 years, agrees. "There is an element that you have to be seen to go there," he says. "But the partying is for me a very superficial part of the whole thing. I have been to the Google and Facebook ones, and they are what they are; it is just pure partying. Frankly, if you have been to a few of those, they are quite repetitive." While this year's event will be chaired entirely by women for the first time in 48 years, the World Economic Forum is largely an event dominated by men. Indeed, "Davos Man" has become a damning sobriquet in its own right. There are numerous power couples to be spotted - George and Amal Clooney were among the stars of last year's event - but aside from the occasional white-badge-clutching spouse in Chanel skiwear, most masters of the universe choose to come to Davos alone.

The Belvedere - a long-standing favourite haunt of Tony Blair - is chief among the Davos heavyweight venues, and this year will be hosting around 320 events and swelling its workforce by 300 to cater for the incoming crowd. In previous years, the hotel reportedly served guests with lobster specially flown in from Boston, but yesterday (Monday) general manager Tina Heide was remaining tight-lipped around the specific details of any parties. According to Joe Landon, chief finance officer at the US-based space mining firm Planetary Resources, who is attending his fourth Davos, there is a growing awareness among some that firms should tone down the extravagant spending. "Companies and people are very conscious of conspicuous expenses and going over the top," he says. "People spend a lot of money but are conscious of the appearance to make sure it doesn't undermine the credibility of what they do there." The late night sing-a-long

One constant fixture in the Davos calendar that doesn't depend on the colour of your pass or cut of your boot, is the late-night singalong to the pianist at the Tonic Bar in Hotel Europe. Anyone who is anyone in Davos circles has been through here at some point, and supposedly Billy Joel songs are the favourite request. Which would best surmise Davos 2018? Perhaps his conveniently titled number one hit: We Didn't Start the Fire. When 2,600 of the globe's most powerful political, business and financial leaders convene in Davos to ponder the current world order they'll come equipped with ideals, agendas - and high-performance snow gear. That's because the World Economic Forum, cerebral though its remit may be, takes place in a Swiss winter wonderland. The snowdrifts and gales mean that far from typical CEO-wear, Davos attendees have to find a way to bring E-suite dignity to the types of clothes more often seen on their snowboarding-mad millennial offspring. Fur-lined parkas, snow boots and ski goggles are de rigueur for trooping around the grounds - and they'd better be smart snow boots, given that a selfie opportunity with Matt Damon could be right over the next snowbank. In fact, there's almost an inverse relationship between appearance and station at the WEF - the man wearing a parka that looks borrowed from his teenager could be the CEO of a FTSE-topping company. It's enough to make anyone who hazards a go at walking outside in a suit, overcoat and dress shoes appear foolish.

Which is why Amal Clooney and Sheryl Sandberg have drawn some sneery comments for the form-fitting dresses and high heels they've worn for Davos events. What critics fail to appreciate is that the WEF requires two wardrobes: practical gear for outside, and head- of-state attire for anyone on a dais at the indoor events, where the bank of cameras is of greater concern than the weather. Loading Anyway, Sandberg and Clooney have clocked on to something critical: the real power signifiers at Davos aren't the colour-coded badges attendees wear to gain access to the panels and parties, but the shoes. With chauffeur access highly restricted at the forum site, only the top tier of attendees can get away with wearing anything other than the most robust, non-slip snow boots between events. A Tod's driving loafer, then, or even some of Clooney and Sandberg's beloved pin-thin stilettos, suggest that one is above the weather - and the crowd. Telegraph, London