Manish Arora

New York fashion star Alexander Wang on Thursday presented his much anticipated first show for Balenciaga with a collection praised as "elegance, modernity, structure", while Lanvin's Alber Elbaz opted for a large helping of old school glamour.

New York fashion star Alexander Wang on Thursday presented his much anticipated first show for Balenciaga with a collection praised as "elegance, modernity (and) structure", as India's Manish Arora took prints to new heights.

Balenciaga struck a high note at Paris Fashion Week Thursday, sending out a couture-inspired look part pure and part playful, under the gaze of Kristen Stewart and Vogue's style priestess Anna Wintour.

Fashion house Paco Rabanne, which launched a women's ready-to-wear line last year, has dismissed its artistic director, Manish Arora of India, by a "mutual agreement," it said Friday.

Nineteen-fifties silhouettes in nipped-waist dresses, lit up by subversive images lifted from Brooklyn street art: India's Manish Arora offered bright, bold contrasts at Paris fashion week on Thursday.

Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Tuesday with the in-crowd abuzz at the prospect of style icon Hedi Slimane designing for Yves Saint Laurent, and rumours putting a newly-free Raf Simons in the wings at Dior.

"Made in India" clothing is often seen as the product of sweatshop labour, but fashion designer Saloni Lodha, whose fans include film stars Naomi Watts and Emma Watson, wants to give it a luxury tag.

Paco Rabanne returned to the catwalks after a five-year absence on Tuesday, as the house's new designer Manish Arora sent out sexy aliens in shimmery python chain-mail and 3-D embroidery.

Manish Arora's own label look for next spring featured eagle-feather collars, fluo stilettos and shiny silver body armour, but as style director for Paco Rabanne, the Indian designer says he still has some surprises in store.

Iridescent silver body cladding in psychedelic swirled patterns, riotous shots of fluo pink and green: India's Manish Arora gave the Paris fashion crowd a rainbow-coloured shot in the arm on Thursday.

Designers took Paris from rainforest to cityscape, from the ocean to the open sky on Wednesday as Dries Van Noten and Felipe Oliveira Baptista headlined day two of the French capital's fashion week.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (Reuters) - A stream of bare-chested religious devotees step gingerly through metal detectors at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in southern India as armed commandos with AK-47s guard perhaps one of the world's greatest treasures to surface in recent times.

Backstage after his show on day three of the Paris pret-a-porter collections on Thursday, Zac Posen summed up the kind of woman he dresses in four words: "Voracious, sexy, intelligent, chic."

Business casual need not apply: Paris does outrageous. Wallflowers and those in the market for business casual, look elsewhere. Boldness was in the air at Paris' spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear shows on Thursday, as designers here delivered over-the-top looks for those whose entrances are always grand and for the happy few who live in the glow of paparazzi's flashbulbs.

Gold bangles twirled lizard-like up calves at Manish Arora Thursday, while at Balenciaga a star-studded Paris fashion crowd was served up "children of punk", clad in reptilian python and biker jackets.

Gold bangles twirled lizard-like up calves, around necks and backs, as the band roared out electro updates of James Bond theme tunes: welcome to Manish Arora's baroque world.

Skin, what skin? Paris designers cover up for spring-summer. A new modesty swept the catwalks on Wednesday's Day Two of the marathon Paris spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear displays, with designers shunning sizzling sex appeal in favor of oversized, grandma-friendly looks that left nearly everything to the imagination.

The young Nepalese fashion designer Prabal Gurung has been courted by the world's top style magazines and won plaudits for his creations from some of Hollywood's best-known actresses.

The young Nepalese fashion designer Prabal Gurung has been courted by the world's top style magazines and won plaudits for his creations from some of Hollywood's best-known actresses.

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - Demand for Indian couture has surged in the Middle East and East Asia in the last five years but the West remains out of bounds due to lack of exposure, designers and buyers said at India's largest fashion event.