Japan exhibition looms for city fashion designer

Mild Red fashion designer Donna Tulloch says she is "honoured" to have been chosen as an "internationally recognised" designer to show pieces at a gallery in Japan this month.

The Dunedin-based designer will show outfits which are a collaboration between herself and Christchurch sculptor Graham Bennett, at Galerie Paris in Yokohama, during the city's triennial art festival.

Her work with Bennett was first featured at the id Dunedin Fashion Show this year, with architectural-looking pieces of jewellery combined with draped clothing.

Through assistance from the Dunedin City Council, Tulloch will have exclusive use of space at the gallery from October 10 to 18, the week after an exhibition by Bennett, in what the gallery's owners say will bring a New Zealand focus to the city.

The outfits use all New Zealand material, including merino from Timaru, and Pride of New Zealand Tartan, from Dunedin, and are strictly New Zealand-made.

Tulloch, whose collections are stocked in stores throughout New Zealand and Australia, said she became involved with the Galerie Paris about four years ago, through Bennett, who regularly shows his work there.

Bennett's wife was wearing Mild Red clothing and the owners of the gallery inquired as to what she was wearing.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Tulloch's clothes have since been stocked at the gallery's boutique and she will take her winter 2008-09 range to be sold when she leaves for Japan on Monday.

The owners have also arranged several meetings in order for Tulloch to expand her contacts and stockists.

Tulloch said she had always admired Japanese designers and their use of fabric in textures, draping and layering, so it was "quite amazing" to be able to show her works in Japan.

It was a chance not only to promote Mild Red but also the New Zealand fashion industry, she said.