iD 2011: Inspired by the incidental

Twelve months ago, she may not have been able to pinpoint Dunedin on a map, but Dutch designer Marielle van de Ven is calling the southern city home for the next two months.

She won an Otago Polytechnic scholarship award, presented for showing innovation in the use of material and methods, at the Mittelmoda fashion competition, in Italy, in July last year.

Based at the fashion school's new Forth St premises, she is using the opportunity to create a new collection for next month's iD Dunedin Fashion Week.

The five-piece womenswear collection is "conceptual" and features layering and softness.

"It's more about my aesthetic," she says.

Miss van de Ven takes inspiration "from the streets", and items people leave behind on them, or ways in which they mark them.

"I always find it interesting when people leave things somewhere," she says.

The "unexpected and effortless" way in which individuals dress themselves, especially when they have no interest in fashion, is another part of the urban world which inspires her.

She enjoys seeing the different ways "city nomads" present themselves. Her latest collection is "more wearable", a trend she has picked up from catwalks in Europe.

Working in a foreign city is challenging, she says, but a productive way to spend her time, as once the scholarship finishes, finding a job is high on her list and adding to her portfolio is positive.

The collection will be shown at the iD International Emerging Designer Awards, which acquaintances of hers are attending.

Many others wanted to come for it, but travelling to the other side of the world for a competition is expensive for a young designer.

Travelling was never high on Miss van de Ven's list, either.

She says she wants to "dedicate my life to fashion" and spend every spare dollar on her work.

However, being able to combine one month of travel with the two-month scholarship was great.

"This is just perfect, because I really wanted to see some of New Zealand," she says. In December she and her brother flew into Auckland and travelled down the country.

Miss van de Ven hoped to gather inspiration for work along the way, but, used to the museums and galleries of Europe, adjusting to to spectacular landscapes was "different".