Pieter Stewart: Annual fashion festival proven money-spinner

Today marks the start of Air New Zealand Fashion Week, the sixth year of collections and another opportunity for the business of fashion to take the spotlight.

To many, a fashion week appears to be a week of cocktail parties and beautiful people talking about "must have" accessories for next year. It is all of that ... but it is also a serious week of business; the business just happens to be fashion.

Fashion week is a trade event unlike any other. It consists of an exhibition, live designer fashion shows, and now public events. We attract top international and national buyers and media, and gain valuable profile for the industry, Auckland and New Zealand.

Fashion Week started in 2001 with the objective of providing a new platform for local fashion designers to showcase their collections to export markets and to generate home sales. In just six years it has become a much anticipated event among the New Zealand fashion industry and the public.

Fashion Week is now a recognised event on the international fashion calendar. The operating budget has grown to about $3 million, which comes largely from sponsorship and strategic partnerships. As well as our hugely supportive naming rights sponsor, there are dozens of sponsors who have played their role nurturing the event.

An estimated 14,000 guests attended the collections in 2005 - up 5000 from the previous year. About 600 registered media and buyers came, representing 14 countries.

It is difficult to quantify exactly what fashion week contributes to the fashion industry in terms of economic statistics. This is, in no small part, due to individual labels being privately owned and operated and therefore not obligated to disclose their export and local sales figures.

However, New Zealand's total apparel exports (excluding textiles) were $313.5 million for the year to June 2005, up from $220 million when Fashion Week began in 2001. This is comparable to marine industry exports. Once you add in textiles that figure jumps to $534.5 million - which compares to export earnings generated by our much respected wine industry.

Research into its economic impact carried out by Horwath Asia Pacific for 2004 found the following: The total output generated as a result of "downstream" spending in Auckland and New Zealand as a measure of total economic activity generated was $33.06 million to the New Zealand economy.

We hear from designers and retailers the positive impact that Fashion Week has and how sales increase the week of the collections. Our event receives over $22 million in media coverage - for a week-long trade event that figure is pretty staggering and can be equated to major international rugby tours.

However, I am frustrated by the persistent need of some media commentators to compare fashion with other industries.

It's chalk and cheese. In most countries, fashion is a serious business.

At Paris Fashion Week, journalists do not make snide comments about the fact that sausage skin exports are worth more to the country than fashion - as National Radio felt compelled to do last year.

Neither do they compare it to pumpkin exports as TVNZ managed to do for a whole week two years ago.

The French are fully aware that being perceived as a stylish nation is worth more than you can possible quantify by comparing the earnings of the dairy, beef, wool and pumpkin sectors.

The fashion industry falls into the category of creative arts and deserves to be celebrated as such. Some of our top designers are feted in some of the world's fashion capitals (Trelise Cooper, Karen Walker, Zambesi are just three examples).

Like the film and music industries, fashion can create valuable profile for the country, which in turn can assist other industries to gain a foothold in key export markets and attract young, urban travellers.

The event creates employment for more than 450 people. As sales increase, the downstream effect is designers employing more people. So, yes, it is big business.

In order to have a successful Fashion Week a huge amount of work is undertaken throughout the year which grows the event and the industry.

Contacts from international missions to research and develop markets to find the "right" buyers for New Zealand fashion are shared, particularly with the Government. Fashion Week also hosts industry educational workshops throughout the country for designers. We work with government agencies on researching new markets which help all industries trying to gain access.

Above all, Fashion Week is a "good" news story. Over the last 10 years, fashion weeks have popped up in Spain, Brazil, Russia, Sydney and New Zealand.

The market is very tough, and buyers have become very discerning. They are looking for that new star.

Top labels such as Chanel or Giorgio Armani can be bought all around the world, but with little variation.

Buyers now want different, fresh and new, and the time is right for New Zealand to offer its unique brand of fashion to the world.

* Pieter Stewart is founder and managing director of Air New Zealand Fashion Week.