It is 4pm on a temperate winter's day in Paris. In French luxury label Celine's showroom in the historic Chatelet district, Ivana Omazic is describing what the term 'couture sportswear' means.

'I want to dress the modern, active, urban woman who is strong, sensual - not sexual - and gentle at the same time,' declares the 35-year-old Croatian-born designer, the label's creative director since 2005.

Which is why the clothes she has designed for fall/winter 2008 boast a fluidity that is contemporary yet classic, sporty yet dressy, masculine yet feminine.

None of the pieces, despite the sportswear tag, looks like a track suit or gym gear.

Instead, classic trenches in a lightweight parachute material are paired with little rucksacks; a scuba diving wetsuit is transformed into an elegant floor-length jersey gown; and elements of sports equipment are distilled into velcro-laden leather high-heeled boots.

'I was inspired by two things I love: extreme sports, like skydiving, scuba diving and in-line skating, and flowers,' she says of her latest designs.

'Today, we are always rushing and moving, so movement of the clothes is very important. Moreover, I love the mix of hard, modern stuff with the soft and feminine.'

Celine, owned by French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, was started in 1945 by Frenchwoman Celine Vipiana as a children's shoe store. The marque launched a range of leather handbags and a ready-to-wear line in the 1960s.

Fluidity and freedom of movement are both important elements of Celine's sportswear- inspired designs.

In 1997, American designer Michael Kors was named its first-ever women's ready-to-wear designer and creative director.

During his six-year tenure, he turned the fashion house around with blockbuster accessories and a critically acclaimed ready-to-wear line.

Today, the brand is profitable in South-east Asia, says Celine president Serge Brunschwig, who declined to give specific figures.

Celine is run in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by home-grown fashion and lifestyle retailer FJ Benjamin, which took over the brand's existing seven stores in the four countries on March 31 last year.

With three more stores opened in Malaysia and Indonesia in the past year, FJ Benjamin is well on its way to hit its target of 14 Celine stores by 2010. The label currently has two stores in Singapore.

In less skilful hands, the house's mandate of couture sportswear may seem limiting. But for Paris-based Omazic, who studied fashion design at the European Institute of Design in Milan, it is 'inspiring'.

She shares an anecdote: When she first joined Celine as a consultant in 2005, she pored over old photos and documents to acquaint herself with the brand.

'I immediately thought to myself that the ready-to-wear line was a bit 'sporty couture', then I found out later from old press clippings that this was exactly the term Celine Vipiana used to describe the clothes in her time.'

She adds: 'It was nice to find that two completely different women in two completely different epoques define this house with the same words.'

Every season, her mantra is the same: Use luxurious materials, cut them such that they allow freedom of movement and make sure each piece is versatile enough to be worn in different ways.

For fall/winter 2007, she reworked the traditional Parisian chic with a Slavic edge, sending out a sexy Siberian tiger print dress and coats cinched at the waist with obi belts.

For spring/summer 2008, she reinterpreted the formula with a classically modern series of dresses that relied on whaleboning and crinolines to create structure and movement.

'I believe you can be elegant and comfortable at the same time, and the utility of clothes can exist together with freedom of the body as well as femininity,' she says.

But Omazic, who cut her teeth as a junior design assistant to Italian designer Romeo Gigli and later as the women's ready-to-wear design coordinator at Miu Miu, does not design with a specific woman, or market, in mind.

Never mind that Asia is now the world's biggest market for luxury goods, accounting for 37 per cent of the US$80 billion (S$111 billion) sector. She says it is 'impossible to design specifically for one market because we live today in a global village'.

'It doesn't mean we have to be uniform. The diversity of the woman is the beauty of the woman. My job is to create a collection that every woman can find speaks to her,' she says.

The statuesque designer has no muse either: Pop culture has little bearing on her world of timeless clothes that fit every woman.

Of the current media frenzy surrounding cult-status designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and their celebrity muses, she says: 'Just for laughs, the other day I said to my boyfriend that maybe this is the first collection done by a woman for women inspired by a man.'

'I met him while skydiving and we have been living together for five years. Maybe he's my muse.'

NO SWEAT

Celine is moving from effortless Parisian chic to couture sportswear, and the fall/winter 2008 collection made the transition very clear. This collection was intended to be about movement and femininity, and creative director Ivana Omazic, 35, achieved just that.

In keeping with the notion of couture sportswear, the clothes played on the contrasts between strength and sweetness, movement and grace.

Celine's creative director Ivana Omazic's love of skydiving is seen in the mini backpacks fitted onto trenchcoats, while other sporty details are added onto the outfits.

By and large, the collection wasn't groundbreaking - there were no dramatic silhouettes nor dictates about how the modern woman should dress. But the show conveyed an idea of how a woman who loves, say, in-line skating need not sacrifice style for comfort.

There was plenty of movement in luxe jersey dresses with large, wavy crinoline hems which swished dramatically as the models sashayed down the runway.

Unfortunately, a particular floor-length jersey gown (Picture 1) was very unforgiving, emphasising the toothpick-thin model's tummy and jutting hip bones.

Luxurious fabrics like silk, cashmere and crocodile leather were transformed into sporty ensembles with the help of zips and velcro. As Japanese model Ai Tominaga showed with one outfit (Picture 2), a luxurious paillette dress can be made contemporary with just a hoodie and fingerless gloves.

Jackets were cut to emphasise the feminine form and footwear was positively sporty: Think stiletto boots with velcro straps and sculptured wedge boots, all in black leather.

Mini backpacks in bright, candy colours fitted snugly under light trenches (top), a look no doubt inspired by Omazic's favourite extreme sport, skydiving.

The colour palette was mainly white, grey and black, with some London blue thrown into the mix. A welcome shock of colour came in the form of three mousseline dresses in bright pink, orange and green (Picture 3) with ethereal prints of the rose, hibiscus and orchid flowers.

'From the flowers I took the generosity of volume and treated them in very light materials to keep the element of movement again,' Omazic told Urban the day after the show.

The LVMH-owned French label, which is also known for It bags such as the Boogie and the Bittersweet, could find a hit this season in the form of a metal frame handbag (Picture 4) with a large mirror on the front flap, making it both stylish and practical.

Juicy Couture, eat your heart out. This is how couture sportswear is done with class - not by dressing Jennifer Lopez in terry cloth track suits.

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times on Mar 6, 2008.