The historic Dunedin Railway Station, home to the iD Dunedin Fashion Show
Having spent a small amount of time in Dunedin over the past few years, I welcomed the opportunity to travel down south for two of the main events at iD Dunedin 2012, the International Emerging Designer Awards and id Dunedin Fashion Show at the Dunedin Railway Station.
The International Emerging Designers Awards attracted local and international entries as were the selection of judges. Initially receiving 100 entries from seven countries, watching the 28 emerging designers who made it this far was an exciting array of creativity and innovation. While the final results failed to include any of the home grown talent, the judges, judged with no pre-conception for which school, colleges or country each entrant was from, but based their final decisions on looking for the distinctive concepts that encompassed the full package.
iD International emerging designer winner 2012 Carolina Barua, Royal Melbourne Institute Technology
Read more on the International Emerging Designer Awards
It was a pretty busy time so there was also the additional offering of a little pampering at Erban Spa with an Antipodes Aroha Organic Facial that can only be described as bliss. Starting the treatment with a foot soak and massage, my very tender toes (from tottering around in heels for too long) started to forgive me for the punishment they had endured the previous evening. I can’t remember a lot about the facial as I had nodded off by this stage, but again I have to reference the word bliss, my skin felt amazing and it was the perfect way to take 60 minute’s out of a hectic schedule.
Erban Spa Dunedin, the perfect place to recharge the batteries.
Heading back stage before the id Dunedin Fashion Show on Friday evening, the Redken team kindly swished my hair into a glam up-do, whilst sitting back and watching in complete awe, the madness that is backstage prior to a show. The organisation of 55 models, wearing the creations of 24 designers, I can imagine is not an easy task; and watching the event I often forget the insane detail that’s required to orchestrate a flawless runway event.
The challenging task of getting more than 50 models’ hair catwalk-ready was appointed to Redken’s creative directors Jock Robson and Sara Allsop of Dharma Hairdressing.
The historic Dunedin Railway Station, home to the id Dunedin Fashion Show is a truly remarkable venue. With 3000 in attendance the crowd cocooned the 110 metre long runway. This show was the perfect combination of runway regulars such as NOM*d, Liam and Ruby and local labels like Dada Vintage, Deval and Cherry Cotton Candy and a selection Otago Polytechnic students were given their chance to shine.
Local designers: Dada Vintage, Deval, Cherry Cotton Candy
Otago Polytechnic Students Grace Averis and Phillip Hawkins with their designs.
Hosted by John Campbell there was the surprise visit from Colin Mathura-Jeffree who graced the runway wearing Christchurch based label MisteR.
Colin Mathura-Jeffree with Mickey Lin and Ra Thomson, Designers of the Christchurch based label MisteR
Read more about id Dunedin Fashion Show
Overall my Dunedin experience was fantastic; you could feel the energy and pride of the locals embracing their event and there was a real sense of community. The PR team and organisers did an extraordinary job and its events such as this which continue to support, grow and strengthen the New Zealand Fashion Industry, thank you Dunedin!
– Petrina Wilson
Imagery: Chris Sullivan
Models: Ali McD models