The 17th edition of Dunedin's iD Fashion week is set to flounce poised and imperious into the city this week.
Entry by air has been dressed up in iD clobber and Dunedin music greats The Clean's Kilgour brothers and Straitjacket Fits' Shane Carter and friends are set to provide the soundtrack to the 12th iD International Emerging Designer Awards on Thursday.
The 35 sheets of wood that make up the exceedingly long runway used for the Dunedin Railway Station show are about to be sold by online auction to anyone with a love of fashion and a builder's yard big enough to store the 3.6m by 1.8m slabs of chipboard.
That's right - it's all on.
The week begins this morning with the always physically contested iD Designer Sale.
The sale attracts an army of women who compete vociferously for first dibs on racks of cut-price designer fashion.
Next week will feature visits from excellent fashionistas Kate Sylvester and Emilia Wickstead, and plenty of nerve-racking moments for models and designers as they are judged and ranked in the hard world of fashion.
Then, of course, there is the railway station show on Friday and Saturday, two nights when Dunedin throws caution to the wind and dresses up in the latest mod styles without a hint of timid behaviour.iD Dunedin chairwoman Cherry Lucas said designer Kate Sylvester had been invited
‘‘I don't know how many times'' and the dates had always clashed with something else in her diary.
‘‘To have her finally here, that's great.''Having live bands at the emerging designer show - David and Hamish Kilgour would play as Zealander 3, and Shayne Carter would play with Dunedin musicians Michael Morley and Robbie Yeats - would make it ‘‘quite a different event''.
The idea had been suggested by committee member and Otago Polytechnic academic leader of fashion Dr Margo Barton, who had been considering how to change the event and make it ‘‘truly Dunedin''.
‘‘Let's just try it, see how it goes,'' Ms Lucas said.
‘‘We're pretty excited about that.
‘‘I think it's going to be a great week, actually.''
Ms Lucas said her first year as chairwoman had consumed more of her time than she anticipated, but her institutional knowledge from 10 years on the committee had stood her in good stead.
‘‘There's always things you think you know, but until you walk in somebody's shoes you realise actually ‘I didn't know that'.''
