Follow the money, they say. But after the recession, there's no big money at New Zealand Fashion Week this year - just an increased cash injection from paying punters. Kirsten Warner reports.
When New Zealand Fashion Week kicks off with a formal cocktail party on Monday the dress code is high fashion and the guests will be setting a standard of presentation for the next four days.
As they sip champagne and eat elaborate canapés, they will feast their eyes on the beautiful Krista White, America's Next Top Model 2010, as she helps present this year's fashion export award. Seasoned Fashion Weekers will be pacing themselves, though, at the start of an intense week of shows, meetings, and networking.
Some wondered if NZ Fashion Week would go ahead at all in 2010 after the withdrawal of Air NZ as naming rights sponsor and when the parent company of sponsor hotel The Westin went into receivership.
But both companies are still listed among Fashion Week's six "elite" sponsors, albeit on a less grand scale than previous years.
"Nothing has changed except we are celebrating 10 years of being NZFW, so it's quite nice to have our own name back," says brand manager Myken Stewart.
Indeed, she goes further: "In a way, it was strategic not to bring in a naming partner."
Without a name sponsor, big players IBM, Toshiba, PWC and Visa have been encouraged on board, she says. "We made budget, I'm happy about that and sponsorship's been fine. In a tough market I'm pretty happy."
It is believed Air NZ is contributing a little over $100,000 in sponsorship this year, most of that "in kind" - for example, flying people to and from Auckland.
In previous years they might have provided between $200,000 and $300,000 of such sponsorship plus additional promotion of their own such as advertising Air NZ as a Fashion Week name sponsor and flying their own guests to and from Auckland.
Fashion Week is primarily a trade event for buyers, media, fashionistas and designers to brand their labels. Some industry insiders are looking somewhat askance at the way that's changing. They wonder if financial pressures were behind the increase in the number of ticketed public events as a way to get money flowing in.
But Fashion Week insists public events are in response to demand and because ticketed shows have always sold out.
And they don't come cheap. Tickets to this year's IBM Designer Selection Show cost $100 for the front two rows and $65 for the next three rows with the promise of a goodie bag.
Tickets to visiting US designer Nicole Miller's show come with a $100 price tag as does The Retrospective Show. A comedy show on Wednesday night is in the normal price range at $49 and $39. The exception is Tuesday night's Walk the Line Young Designer's Fashion Show which costs only $15, and is discounted to $10 for students.
From Friday, the $20 Fashion Weekend opens to the public with free seminars, music, catwalk designer shows, entertainment and the NZ Herald Designer Garage Sale until Sunday.
Expect to pay Viaduct prices: a glass of wine will cost from $8 to $12 and a glass of Moet & Chandon champagne $19.
Air NZ, which for six years had naming rights to Fashion Week, provided the big VIP lounge - and it seems that anyone who was anyone was on the Air NZ VIP guest list. There, guests and journalists could sip espresso or champagne and hobnob with the movers and shakers.
That lounge is now gone but Fashion Week organisers will use the space to house some of its own guests and media. And if you're among the select, you can still get away without paying for your refreshments: there are other smaller lounges to schmooze, drink champagne and eat canapés this year.
Air NZ's shrunken contribution still comes with a squadron of off-duty flight attendants who volunteer as ushers. They get to see the inside of Fashion Week in return for standing at doors, checking tickets, showing people where to sit and, most importantly, making sure A-listers and not interlopers get those jealously guarded front row seats.
The Air NZ ladies are pivotal in keeping the shows flowing, wrangling queues in and out of small spaces around the main events with pressing time constraints, sometimes dealing with fraying tempers and agitated punters. This year 200 volunteers also signed up to help dress models, usher and staff the registration area.
Krista White is flying in from Los Angeles today, in time for the opening tomorrow night. The gorgeous tall black woman will not only help Air NZ announce the winner of its sponsored $30,000 export award but is also part of the winning package - she will model at the winner's Fashion Week show.
Last year Stolen Girlfriends Club took away the $30,000 Taking NZ Fashion to the World award and twenty-seven names won the new talent $10,000 Runway to Runway Award. Wellington's Alexandra Owen is a favourite this year.
With the help of the airline, Fashion Week flies over an undisclosed number of guests - either industry insiders who can help NZ fashion or celebrities who bring media attention.
Fashion Week picks up the tab for taxis, accommodation, translator: it's a $20,000 package for some top-tier guests including:
* Derek Warburton (dereklovesshopping.com) a stylist and affordable fashion guru, friend of Richie Rich and Ellen deGeneres.
* Gala Gonzalez, 22, a London fashion blogger who came to Auckland after Sydney Fashion Week and was keen to return.
* Kristopher Arden-Houser, an influential online writer, stylecaster and contributor to Vogue UK and Italy.
* US designer Nicole Miller, who dresses Angelina Jolie, Beyonce and Halle Berry, has her own show.
There are 54 VIP guests and 600 delegates registered. "Realistically it can't get much bigger - and for us and the designers it's all about quality and not quantity," says Stewart.
As in previous years, guests stay at the nearby five-star The Westin Auckland Lighter Quay where half the rooms are closed while a dispute with investors boils on. "Most of the people have managed to fit into the Westin," says Stewart.
The Westin is honouring its sponsorship contract, says the hotel's director of sales, Katie Kennedy.
Hotel show for public a World first
World's Denise L'Estrange-Corbet is gobsmacked at the price of ticketed events at New Zealand Fashion Week. "I didn't realise they were that much. I've been to one - you go, you sit in your venue, you watch the show and you leave."
World is offering its own swept-up luxury show with free cocktails, good wine and elaborate canapés for $75 - not as much as the price of a ticket to American designer Nicole Miller.
"I'm flabbergasted, I really am, I had no idea ... you pay $100 and you get no food or drink?"
Yet at $75 a ticket, World probably won't cover its costs, even with sponsorship and food and alcohol supplied.
"I know shows cost a lot to put on, they do ... and I think for a few bucks more you can have an absolutely luxury, fabulous evening. But we've worked very hard to be able to offer this to the public."
World is staging two different collections this year: a trade show for 500 media, VIPs and valued customers plus a public show for 500 paying punters, both at the Langham Hotel, both catered with food, drinks and goodie bags.
The public show is a World first. "So often you hear the public say 'I can never get into Fashion Week because ... I don't know any of the designers and it's invitation only'."
Usually the closest the public gets to a World showing, apart from television, is to see a couple of garments at one of the designer selection shows. So the company has been inundated with requests for tickets to the Fashion Week event.
And there are calls from people they've never heard of, or their agent, begging for a ticket, says L'Estrange-Corbet.
But World is not interested in invited overseas celebs, buyers or even media who don't wear World and won't be bringing them business.
"It's great for New Zealand, to have its own Fashion Week but you just have to be aware of what it is for your brand, what you're looking to get out of it and every designer has to make that choice."
