Fashion designer Darya Razumikhina held a presentation for her latest collection Fall-Winter 2000-2001 on the premises of the Stanislavsky House miniature theater in Moscow on March 31.

This January, the collection was shown in the Paris Pret-a-Porter Salon.

For two years since graduating from famous St. Martins College of London, Darya Razumikhina has been creating high fashion items under the brand name Razu Mikhina.

She is one of a few Russian designers successfully selling their products not only in Russia but also in Japan, the United States, France and Switzerland. Moreover, Razumikhina develops over 200 items per year for the French brand Mohanjeet.

For her latest collection the designer chose a very scientific name, Syntagma, which means a combination of compatible elements.

The collection represents an artful mix of Russia's cultural heritage with modern British trends.

In her personal comment she said she is opposed to pomposity in evening dresses and her credo is a freedom of originality and exquisiteness combined with simplicity of refinement.

Razumikhina's dresses are convenient not only to wear, but also to wash.

In this collection she used only natural and Russian-produced materials.

"I was inspired by Russian traditional and practical things," she said.

"I found it very exciting to use fabric cuttings in making fancy-bags, hankerchiefs, footwear, decorations and accessories."

The collection's intricately patterned laces of felt dresses and shirts tailored of waste fabric cuttings, display her extremely strongly bent toward the avant-garde.

With special pride Razumi-khina presented a mini-collection of what she called "orphan dresses."

She described them as everyday clothes but noted that one needs to have a sense of humor to get the idea. Will Moscow be a fashion capital? Obviously yes.