This year marks the 10th anniversary of the iD Dunedin Fashion Show and the ninth at the historic Dunedin Railway Station. Fashion writer Jude Hathaway looks back on the early days of the event.
On Saturday night, March 14, the 10th annual iD Dunedin Fashion Show will once again attract a crowd of more than 1500 to the platform of the Dunedin Railway Station.
The show's beginnings lay in the bright flashes of success for Dunedin designers in 1998, which had gained for them and the city local and national attention.
Richard Moore, Fieke Newman and Vaughan Geeson had won top honours at the 1998 Smokefree Fashion Design awards.
They, along with the then Dunedin-domiciled Nick Blanchet, whose menswear collection had captured the international spotlight at the Australian Fashion Week earlier that year, represented a startling rise of new talent in Dunedin.
"Let's celebrate," said their peers, who made up the small, but growing, fashion design community in Dunedin, which already included Margarita Robertson, Tanya Carlson and Donna Tulloch.
And they did, with a show dedicated to local fashion designers at Ra Bar in the Octagon on an August night in 1998.
The two designers of the Raw label, Bronwen Davies and Hilary Rowley, had initiated the event with enthusiastic assistance from Ra Bar owner and supporter of local design Beth O'Connor.
All were staggered by the public and media interest it generated.
People were lined up at the door unable to get in. Among these was the then mayor of Dunedin, Sukhi Turner, who had been invited as a special guest.
It was not until the next day that the reason for the mayor's absence was clarified.
What was abundantly clear was the immense appeal of such a show and the genuine public interest in the designers who lived and worked in the city. They were, indeed, something to celebrate.
Among those who had managed to squeeze inside Ra Bar and see the concept's potential was Dunedin city councillor Teresa Stevenson.
The then DCC chief executive Murray Douglas also expressed interest in a follow-up show.
It would take 17 months for that to happen but on March 29, 2000, the efforts of the organisers, Teresa Stevenson, representing the council, which had provided financial assistance, and Bronwen Davies, were rewarded with the staging of what was called the D-19 2000 fashion show.
The major sponsor was the Otago Daily Times.
Again it was held in close collaboration with Beth and Mike O'Connor with the venue, this time, the larger café and bar Bennu and the then adjoining Spaghetti Factory.
This time 19 local designers showed winter collections. It was again a sell-out, the huge crowd stretching Bennu's resources.
Those who missed out on tickets peered through the large plate-glass windows from the street.
Ensuring that this time the mayor would not be left out in the cold, Mrs Turner had been invited to make a guest appearance as a model on the catwalk.
Later that night she told the Otago Daily Times: "I hope this will be the start of something special."As it was, the year had been exceptional for several local designers whose careers were flourishing.
Among these was Margarita Robertson, who in 1999 as one of New Zealand's "Big Four" had taken London Fashion Week by storm with her dynamic Nom*D collection.
Back home several designers were showing design clout and the Otago Polytechnic School of Fashion had gained approval in the same month as the D-19 show for a three-year bachelor of design degree course to begin in 2001.
Yet another success, with benefits to come for the city, was Margo Barton and Andrea Bentley having a collaborative design collection accepted for the prestigious Mittelmoda Awards in Italy.
(The strong links they forged that year with Mittelmoda resulted in the annual international Emerging Designer awards being inaugurated in Dunedin in 2005, which are now a major highlight of the iD Dunedin Fashion Week.)
Determined to get behind the city's fashion industry, Cr Stevenson began planning an event for 2001 with built-in support from the DCC.
Ms Davies, with other commitments, stepped back.
It was obvious a larger venue, to seat at least 1000, was needed, along with someone to provide creative direction.
Tim Pollock, who is now marketing manager for Dunedin City Museums, already had experience in staging an avant-garde show and was enthusiastic.
"The challenge was finding a venue. Teresa and I spent hours touring the obvious and the less obvious. Then came the Dunedin Railway Station.
"I was dubious as I knew the public foyer was not big enough. But, through the doors was the platform . . . brilliant!"
This was a unique venue. It had tremendous atmosphere through its patina of age. It would also serve well as a long catwalk and would accommodate a big crowd.
Although this was a working railway station the station tenants were equally enthusiastic and happy to put up with the disruption during the preparations for the event and the dismantling afterwards.
"The project was exciting from the start.
"It was not about egos, not about being paid, but about people coming on board with genuine attitudes and generous spirits," Mr Pollock said.
Understandably, the air was electric at the inaugural iD Dunedin Fashion Otago Daily Times Winter Collection 2001 show.
The audience, warmly clothed to beat the chill, was exuberant, caught up in the intrigue of being seated on the long open platform of the historic railway station with the Taieri Gorge Excursion train pulled up on the tracks to enclose it as a "fourth wall".
To create a sparkling winter theme, salt crystals were poured on the runway, the uneven surface of which was negotiated with grace by the large contingent of models from Vanity Walk Modelling Agency as they plied the "longest catwalk in the world".
A template for the future was in place.
That the show has endured and grown into a sleekly polished event is no surprise to Cr Stevenson.
"Today, it has become bigger and more fabulous than ever I could have achieved," Cr Stevenson said.
"The show's success has always been about celebrating the unique creativity of the city which is, I believe, a key to the city's economic development."
Trust and the bottom line
As the event has grown, the iD Fashion Incorporated committee has worked to secure and retain a major principal sponsor, a position which the Otago Daily Times relinquished in 2003.
In 2004, Vodafone came on board for four years, and last year the Dunedin-based Southern Trust came in at the eleventh hour.
"We're obviously thrilled that the Southern Trust is with us again this year," said Ms Staley last week.
