Darlene Gore (47) will soon head to New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland, where her designs will be on show after she was selected through a Maori fashion design organisation.
Last month, Ms Gore was one of 12 designers selected for the Miromoda Showcase, which is supported by the Indigenous Maori Fashion Apparel Board, established to advance the status of Maori fashion design.
Ms Gore said initial selections for Miromoda were based on drawings and photos, but once selected she had to put together four outfits in less than three weeks.
Now, she was working to finish two more before the show, with her tailored garments including coats, shirts and trousers, mainly using wool fabrics.
Ms Gore said she studied fashion design at the Otago Polytechnic in 1994, worked in the industry in Dunedin, before returning to the polytechnic to teach in the fashion school in the late 1990s.
She then worked for knitwear firm Tamahine, and Adventure Outfitters, before her career took a sharp turn.
''I had always wanted to do something that was kind of more social or community-minded,'' she said.
That ambition first took her to the doors of funeral parlour Dignity Funeral Services.
''I just went up there and asked if they had anything going.
''They said, `Come along for a couple of weeks' - they took me on, and I was there for three years.''
That work, ''my favourite job ever'', involved everything from embalming to directing funerals.
After that, she was offered a job at Women's Refuge, and stayed there for four years, supervising residential safe houses and volunteers for the crisis line.
''That was a good job.''
After a three-year period at home, Ms Gore said she was ''getting back more seriously into fashion''.
''I've always loved fashion, and I have done a little bit of work from home, made to measure.
''I thought I'd had a long enough break, and I was kind of enthusiastic about it again.''
The opportunity to have her clothes on the catwalk at the Viaduct Events Centre was ''an opportunity to test the waters to see if I'm on the right track, and if people like what I'm doing''.
''The opportunity to be selected, I think, is pretty good.''
On her plans after the fashion week, Ms Gore said she was keen to set up her own label.
''I've never done it for myself; I've always worked for other people.''
She was also keen to find out if what she did was still relevant.
''Everybody wants to know if they're still relevant, don't they?''
Fashion week runs from August 24 to 30, with the Miromoda show on August 27.
