Mother Teresa inspires fashion

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Mother Teresa was the inspiration behind the spring-summer collection of star designer JJ Valaya on the third day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week today where fellow designers Tarun Tahiliani and Rina Dhaka charmed a discerning audience.

Titled 'The Flowers of the Balkans', Valaya brought out one of his best collections to pay tributes to the Albanian-born nun.

''This collection is a tribute to life and one of its invaluable gifts to our generation,'' said Valaya. Spirituality was the underlining theme of his works that moved from vibrant colours to a black and white palette before resting on neutrality.

Super model Mehr Jessia walked for Tahilian's 'Summer Breeze' inviting instantaneous appleause from an audience that included her actor-husband Arjun Rampal.

Designers Shalini Jaikaria and Paras Bairoliya created a Japanese spring on the ramp with their newest Geisha Designs in the backdrop of flowing oriental music. Titled 'Queen of Elphame', the spring-summer collection of Paras-Shalini had an array of soft pink, succulent oranges, mint greens and honeyed yellows transforming skirts, tunics and t-shirts into an ethereal world of designs.

See-through organzas with matching accessories and Japanese hairdoes scorched the ramp at the show, which had a glamorous mix of audience including ace designers Malini Ramani and Kalyani Chawla.

''While humans go about their everyday lives, there is a secret world of mesmerizing fairies and elves in the fragile fashions,'' said the designer-duo after the event.

Geisha Designs currently retails in more than 40 stores across India, South-East Asia, West Asia, the United States, Europe and South Africa.

Gaurav Gupta, Varun Bahl, Puja Arya and Gunjan and Rahul were the other designers, who presented their collections during the day.

Valaya earlier announced a tie-up with designer-clothes outlet Genesis Colour to market their new diffusion label 'Valaya Quantum', which is part of the event today. The new venture is expected to clock sales worth Rs one crore during the Fashion Week from both domestic and international buyers, said Sanjay Kapoor, Managing Director of Genesis.

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