Mauritius, the theme of Koji Aruga's first collection, might seem at first to be a bit of a misnomer.

There were no beauties parading on the runway in sarongs, no golden girls wearing vivid hibiscus-print dresses escorted by tanned, muscular men in natural-fiber loincloths.

Under interrogation, Aruga admitted that he dreamed of the wind blowing from this Indian Ocean island, the surrounding azure sea, the enveloping blue sky, the green-cloaked mountains and endless white-sand beaches.