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Otago Polytechnic graduate Amelia Boland (24) is taking a collection, some of which was shown at iD Dunedin Fashion Week, to New York for Nolcha Fashion Week. Photo by NZ Herald. |
What started as a suspected spam email ended in a dream come
true for fashion designer Amelia Boland.
The Otago Polytechnic graduate will travel to New York next
month to take part in Nolcha Fashion Week.
The four-day event for independent and emerging designers
runs during New York Fashion Week.
The invitation was "very
flattering", but had left her "dubious" for some time after
it arrived in her junk email box.
"I was going through them and laughing at the ones offering
to put $10,000 in my bank account, and I read one asking if I
wanted to be part of New York Fashion Week. I was like 'haha,
what a good one' and then I thought 'that was quite
specific'," she said.
After replying to confirm it was real, her focus turned from
excitement to funding the trip and making five new pieces to
add to her graduate collection.
The invitation came after her polytechnic graduate collection
was selected for the iD Dunedin Fashion Week.
She supposes a Nolcha Fashion Week scout saw the video of iD
online and they then approached her.
Miss Boland, who sewed her first skirt when she was 4 and her
first dress when she was 7, had always dreamed about going to
New York.
"It's given me the confidence that I would definitely look
into what it would take to launch my own line," she said.
She will travel to New York on September 5 for nine nights
and show her garments in a collective fashion show with about
10 other designers.
Nolcha also offered a range of PR events and "meet and
greets" with "everybody and anybody", including Vogue.
The experience cost her $US5000 ($NZ6080) for the fashion
show and PR events.
A bank loan and donations from people in her home town,
Nelson, had made the trip a possibility, but every cent was
worth it for the "massive" experience.
Since graduating last year, she had been working in retail in
Auckland and applying for jobs with New Zealand designers.
She hoped the time in New York would allow her to make some
connections and land a job over there.
"A girl can dream."
ellie.constantine@odt.co.nz
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