On Sunday 25 June, over 13.6 thousand came to the Catherine Park to see Project Associations 2023: Oriental Wind.

This year our annual art and fashion show had an Eastern flavour, as four fashion designers from St Petersburg followed the theme Oriental Wind and drew inspiration from Nicholas II's Eastern journey, which he made at 22 years of age as Grand Duke and Tsesarevich (crown prince) in 1890-91.

The city's lead fashion designers Tatyana Parfionova, Lilia Kisselenko and Stas Lopatkin presented their collections at Tsarskoe Selo for the thirteenth time. Designer Katerina Matlina joined the show for the first time. Victor Kramer, a famous Russian theatre director and producer, took the helm and enhanced the show with beautiful sets and Eastern music.

Each collection represented one of the countries visited by the Tsesarevich on his journey.

Tatyana Parfionova's China-inspired collection A Garden in the Garden was showcased in the Maids-of-Honour Garden, which Tatyana calls a paradise. As if woven from Chinese motifs, the garments in soft pastel colours were decorated with the designer's signature embroidery, this time incorporating irises, swallows and magical fish.

Lilia Kisselenko's Egypt-inspired show unfolded in front of a huge scarab beetle set up at the Cameron Gallery Staircase. For this year's Associations, Lilia chose white over her favourite black colour, added with a dazzling combination of black and gold, as well as Egyptian styled "treasures", hand fans and African details.

Saheb, the India-inspired collection by Stas Lopatkin mesmerized the viewers in the Private Garden with multicolours, rhinestones, pearls, outlandish jewellery and turbans.

Katerina Matlina's Siamese Metamorphoses collection was dominated by white, blue and gold, referring to the colours of Siam. It was presented by models gliding upon the Mirror Pond. Binoculars, steamship horns and smoking chimneys evoked a voyage by the sea.

As nature intervened towards the end, the main fashion event of St Petersburg's summer was interrupted by a downpour of rain through dramatic thunderclouds, which cancelled the gala show of the four designers near the Catherine Palace. The thunder, lightning and rainfall composed the final chord of Associations 2023.