All things bright and beautiful: Models dressed in lotus flower-printed ao dai (traditional long dress) at the first fashion parade at the Hue Festival. The second parade will be held tonight. — VNS Photos   There she is: Miss Viet Nam Ngoc Han presents an ao dai creation during the fashion parade on Monday night.

HUE — A second ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) show at the Hue Festival will be held tonight at the Quoc Hoc Stele Square.

The fashion parade follows an impressive opening show held on Monday night that wowed thousands of Vietnamese and foreign visitors.

Ao dai created by 20 designers from across the country were shown off by 150 models, including reigning Miss Viet Nam Ngoc Han, and former winners Mai Phuong Thuy and Thuy Dung.

The 90-minute parade was backed by traditional music and songs of Hue.

The beauty of ao dai and the serenity of Hue complement each other, said designer Minh Hanh, director of the show.

"Ao dai can honour and renovate the beauty of Hue, and vice versa," she said.

The 300 piece collection was inspired by the lotus, the nation's symbol, and the theme of the show is Hoa Sen Trong Hoi Hoa (Lotus in Paintings).

"Lotus flowers are very familiar to the people of Hue in particular and Vietnamese people in general. They are imbued with the country's spiritual belief and represent the purity of Vietnamese people," said Hanh.

Diverse images of lotus flowers printed on the ao dai make the traditional dresses look like romantic paintings. Some of them were inspired by well-known lacquer and landscape works.

"The show was a banquet of light and colours. I thought I had entered a lotus garden. I was particularly impressed by the dragonflies that had been embroided into the dresses. It was very creative," said Tran Ngoc Van, an audience member.

The parade first appeared at the 2002 Hue Festival, and has become a popular attraction at the biennial event. — VNS