Fashion designer Maria Fleri Soler travels down memory lane, with a strong pinch of nostalgia, as she glides along the corridor of her life, on display at Heritage Malta in Merchants Street, Valletta.

It is the venue of her photographic exhibition of a career that spanned 35 years. As she points out the highlights of it, she is proud but "sad to see it all go by".

It all began in 1972, when Ms Fleri Soler, who always made her own clothes, was encouraged to compete in the National Fashion Festival, organised by Singer. She won it twice in a row and never looked back.

Since then, her twice-yearly fashion shows in exclusive venues - the proceeds of which always went to charity - became anticipated, annual events.

"At the time, there were only two other clothes importers, who organised fashion shows," so she could be considered a pioneer in that respect.

Today, there is too much of the same thing and not enough for those who want something really individual in the shops, she comments about the local fashion scene.

Wedding dresses were her speciality but it was the fashion shows that made her really tick because she had carte blanche to do what she wanted.

The diminutive designer always made it a point to choose her own models - today, some of them are nearing their 60s. "If they did not know how to walk, so much the better for me; I have always hated too much posing," she cringes.

"My sister was one of the best models ever - she deserves some of the credit for the Singer prizes I won," she says, pointing to old, black and white images of her in a high-waisted trouser suit and a ball gown that could be worn today.

It was probably the fact that her designs "could still be worn today" that defined her style. In her own words, they are "simple, elegant and wearable", while "timeless" is what her guests at the inauguration of her exhibition last Saturday said about the clothes that have been captured on film and are now hanging on the walls.

As she spoke, her husband, George, buzzed around getting the logistics under control. "Nothing would have been done without him," his wife admits. "He has been very supportive all the way from the start."

Together they have been working on the exhibition for a year now. It all started when they realised that her collection of photographs and newspaper cuttings was getting ruined in the humidity of her Valletta boutique. "We decided to take them down, and George started scanning them." Unfortunately, many have been lost along the way.

The next step was: It's Fashion. It's Art. It's Maria, which opened with 21 designs from past shows and two new ones, inspired by an Austrian artist, Robert Allot, who painted Italy in the 19th century.

Apart from the collections for her fashion shows, which were tied in with gala dinners and fancy events, Ms Fleri Soler designed the Air Malta uniforms in 1988 and celebrity Brigitte Nielsen's wedding dress when she got married in Malta.

"I remember I just couldn't go around her with the measuring tape - she was so large up top... and I am so small!"

The exhibition is on until the end of next week, and Ms Fleri Soler is hoping that fashion design students will attend it, considering it to be an incentive.

"I loved my work and always enjoyed every minute, despite the hard work," she says, using the past tense all the time, and giving her 35-year career a sense of the finite.

The last images of a fashion show date back to about a decade ago. That is when the regular shows stopped. So, when's the next one? "Big question mark! I'm still at it, but in a very reduced way... not because I am fed up," she says, with a hint of regret, but lots of happy, glamorous memories.