She is one of 18 finalists from throughout New Zealand and the world named for the awards.
Ms Heppelman (31) arrived in Dunedin at the start of the month on a two-month scholarship to the Otago Polytechnic School of Fashion, having won the privilege at a fashion show run by Mittelmoda in Italy last year.
Originally from Hamburg, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht, Netherlands, for four years before returning to her home last year, where she took up an artist's residency.
Ms Heppelman said she was excited about being in Dunedin and being involved in the awards with her collection ‘‘Dengue Fever''. The collection focused on minimalism by creating garments by using only one piece of fabric.
Catsuits are the base for most of the outfits, which include hoods, gloves and shoes which are sewn into the suit.
She was nervous about appearing before judges Stefano Sopelza, of Mittelmoda, fashion designer Adrian Hailwood and fashion journalists Stacy Gregg and Georgina Safe tomorrow, she said.
While in Dunedin, Ms Heppelman was living in an apartment in Mornington and said the use of the polytechnic's ‘‘great'' facilities, as well as assistance from tutors, was helping her to create her next collection, which was based on the environment.
‘‘It is good being able to really focus for two months on making the collection and not worry about having to make money,'' she said.
Ms Heppelman said her next collection would use sustainably grown fabrics to help lessen the impact the fashion industry had on the environment.
But it was not all hard work living in Dunedin, she said. She had also learned to surf ‘‘with a very thick wetsuit''.
