Dunedin once again answers the call

A large Dunedin Railway Station crowd views the offerings at the iD Dunedin Fashion Show. Photos...
A large Dunedin Railway Station crowd views the offerings at the iD Dunedin Fashion Show. Photos by Christine O'Connor.
A crowd gathers for the show.
A crowd gathers for the show.
The Dunedin Railway Station foyer fills with punters.
The Dunedin Railway Station foyer fills with punters.
An elegant calf high-heels down the catwalk as spectators look on.
An elegant calf high-heels down the catwalk as spectators look on.
(from left) Jayde Medder and Laura Saville of Dunedin, Guo-rui Wang of China, and Yaoyao McLeod...
(from left) Jayde Medder and Laura Saville of Dunedin, Guo-rui Wang of China, and Yaoyao McLeod of Dunedin, enjoy the show.
Models take tea before the show.
Models take tea before the show.

Running through all the events of the iD Dunedin Fashion Week, there is an intangible something that binds everything that is Dunedin fashion together.

It cannot be easily defined.

It is the way leather bounces then settles on a hip.

It is the way silk shimmers across a stomach.

It is the way wool clings sensuously to a back.

The fashion week culminated in the iD Dunedin Fashion Show at the Dunedin Railway Station last night, an event that will be repeated tonight.

It followed an opening night that featured Dunedin people at their most fashionable, and an emerging designers' night that showed us appreciative of the cutting edge of cool.

At the Dunedin Railway Station there was the long, long catwalk that ran the length of the building.

There were seats so close you could reach out and touch the battalion of Doc Martens boots and shoes that marched just centimetres away, underneath models in outfits that stretched the definition of clothing.

Media types Richard Langston and Tova O'Brien opened the show at a packed railway station platform, noting the city's long creative heritage, its ''certain darkness'', and Gothic aspect.

''There is a disproportionate number of talented people'' in Dunedin, O'Brien said.

Those comments were just a prelude of what was to come.

There was Doris de Pont's collection that questioned New Zealand and Australian styles, Company of Strangers' range of garments, leather and jewellery, and Tanya Carlson's collection, which drew plenty of clapping from the crowd.

A highlight of dark material, with black on black on black - and a little white and grey - was NOM*d's collection, with a background of music by Stiff Little Fingers and more Doc Martens than you could point a stick at.

The iD Dunedin Fashion Week may appear to the uninitiated to be something to do with models and designers and clothes and people from television: it's not.

iD is about Dunedin people getting the chance the get dressed up and go out somewhere fabulous, where getting dressed up is not just expected, but demanded.

Again last night Dunedin women, and some men, answered the call and turned out in their best.

And that, perhaps is what iD Dunedin Fashion Week is about.

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