id Fashion: The show must go on

The show goes on, but it was a close run thing.

At the 11th hour, Southern Trust Inc stepped into the major sponsor position vacated by Vodafone and the id Dunedin Fashion Week was saved.

Now in its ninth year - the first five as the id Dunedin Fashion Show, the rest in the current expanded celebration of local, national and international fashion - this event has become a critical plank in projecting an image of the city as a creative, go-ahead, modern centre.

Dunedin has a proud history as an incubator of the creative arts. Roger Hall cemented his reputation as a playwright here; James K. Baxter hailed from the city; Janet Frame had connections.

The recently deceased Hone Tuwhare made his home within cooeee; poet Brian Turner grew up in Dunedin.

In the visual arts one thinks of associations with Frances Hodgkins, Ralph Hotere, Grahame Sydney; in music Antony Ritchie and Jonathan Lemalu spring to mind.

In such company sit the heavyweights of the Dunedin fashion scene, recognised international talents who have built their reputations, their businesses and their commercial and critical success from this southern base, and whose presence has been integral to the growth of a small but significant fashion industry in the city.

Among them are Tanya Carlson, Margarita Robertson with her Nom*D label, and hard on their heels a cluster of perhaps lesser known but talented lights.

The Otago Polytechnic's Bachelor of Design (Fashion) degree has been equally central to the development of Dunedin as a New Zealand fashion centre.

It has been able to provide a stream of talented individuals for the fledging industry, working in established studios, and sometimes going out on their own.

Each year, the best of the students line up against top talents from offshore in the Southern Trust id Dunedin Emerging Designer Awards that take place tonight at the Edgar Centre ahead of the main event tomorrow night.

In addition, Dunedin is conspicuous for the number of small, trendy outlets dotting the city's retail sector and carrying the labels of local designers.

They help to lend the city streets a quirky attractiveness, as do some of the more individualistic jewellery designers who have also found a popular presence in the week's events.

The id Dunedin Fashion Week brings all the elements of the industry together in a showcase that can only be good for all participants.

It highlights the inherent strength of fashion design in the city and ensures coverage on a national and international stage.

It focuses attention on Dunedin as a centre of creative excellence and, in the inspired choice of venue for the centrepiece of the week - the Southern Trust id Dunedin Fashion Show - on the railway station platform, it juxtaposes the elegance of the old with the innovation of the new.

But like many essentially creative enterprises, the future of the fashion week is far from assured.

It does not exist as of right. Underpinning its continued existence is the good will, determination and hard work of a group of volunteers on the fashion week committee.

The city has good reason to be grateful to these individuals, and to the support of the Southern Trust, and a host of other sponsors.

It may be dressed up a little differently, but the id Dunedin Fashion Week exemplifies the spirit of creative entrepreneurialism on which much of this city's proud heritage rests.

It would be nothing short of tragic were it lost to Dunedin in the future.