Festival hopes to parade NZ's growing reputation

By DITA DE BONI

The idea of a New Zealand fashion week has risen from the ashes, promising to become a reality in Auckland this October, after an attempt to stage a similar event in Wellington last year failed.

The 2001 proposal has a budget of $1.6 million, including $40,000 from the Auckland City Council.

Corporate sponsors have not yet been named, but Air New Zealand is thought to be one of them. It is understood that $1 million in sponsorship is still needed.

While the last attempt to put together a New Zealand Fashion and Culture week folded two weeks out from the event, organisers are sure that 18 months of consulting the industry will ensure that this year's festival will survive.

Event organiser Pieter Stewart said that she did not want to give too many details, but her event was totally different to the aborted Wellington festival.

"I don't want to say anything until the soldiers are all in a row, and because it is commercially sensitive."

She said that registration packs had not even been sent to designers and that their cost of entry would depend on the level of involvement they opted for.

Organisers hope the event will be held annually in Auckland.

It is being staged to capitalise on a sector which generates around $100 million in exports earnings and involves at least 1600 people directly, says Auckland City councillor Victoria Carter, who chairs the council's city attractions committee.

Fashion and apparel exports totalled $220 million last year.

The Fashion Festival will not dovetail into the Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in Sydney in May, something organisers and fashion industry pundits believe would work to its advantage.

Apparel and Textile Federation head Paul Blomfield said that it was smart to showcase a different season in the local festival - autumn/winter fashions as opposed to Sydney's spring and summer fashion shows, both timed to coincide with Northern Hemisphere buyers.

Fashion journalists and other overseas rag trade luminaries would be more likely to make two short trips than one longer Australasian tour, he said.

"The event will create a lot of energy and hype, there seems to have been a considerable level of planning involved, and the designers are bound to put on a good show."