Image iD Dunedin Fashion Inc.
iD’s over for another year but the fifteenth anniversary event more than lived up to expectations. The raving has ranged from the people you’d expect to rave to random comments on stuff.co.nz by young men dragged along by their girlfriends (they all say that, but the men in the audience never look bored). This year, there seemed to be a lot of satellite events, several of which involved local CTANZ members. All three of Dunedin’s public museums and galleries featured small fashion and costume exhibitions, with the Tanya Carlson wedding dresses at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery the main event. An informal talk between curator Jane Malthus and Tanya Carlson on the Saturday drew over 100 even before the week’s official launch.
The week involves lots of talking about fashion. There’s always a public session featuring a guest judge, this year World’s Francis Hooper. Midweek, a new initiative organised by Elaine Webster, the University of Otago’s Director of Continuing Education drew around 100 people to a panel discussion on shoes featuring Elaine, Jane Malthus, shoe designers Sarah Riley, and Angela Roper of Ziera, and the NZ Fashion Museum’s Doris de Pont. (Doris was back at the university the next day to talk to a small but enthusiastic group of fashion activists about the New Zealand Fashion Museum.)
The various surrounding events help build up excitement for the main events. The Railway Station runway show is the big one, but the one that the cogniscienti rave about is Emerging Designers, which never disappoints. This year it was at the recently refurbished Dunedin Town Hall (the new seats upstairs are very comfortable). Dunedin’s reputation for wearing black was rather compromised by a surprisingly colourful audience – lots of splashes of red, green, blue and turqoise particularly. Lots of that on the catwalk as well, in an evening that began with black leather and ended with red tartan and plush. As always there were various degrees of subtlety and crowd favourites (oversized teddy bears will do it every time); the winner this year student Mahshid Mahdian from Brera Academy, Italy with a Venetian inspired collection.
Image iD Dunedin Fashion Inc.
Huge congratulations to Susie Staley and the iD team for organising another stellar week for locals and visitors alike. Check out the iD website and sign up for their updates and if you’ve never been, keep an eye out for next year.
More coverage and lots more pictures: