Emerging designers battle it out in Dunedin

Designs on the runway at Dunedin iD 2010. Photo / Zoe Walker

Who won Dunedin iD 2010?

Young Croatian designer Igor Galas, who admittedly did do quite incredible knitwear that won over the Dunedin crowd.

But to me - not an official judge so my opinion doesn't really matter at all does it? - the winner should have been Roxanna Zamani, an Otago Polytech graduate whose collection was made up of four white sculptural dresses that women would actually want to buy and wear. And surely that should be the test of any collection sent out on the runway?

Too derivative of Viktor and Rolf's stand out spring/summer hacked at tulle collection, according to the judges, who didn't award her any of the nine prizes on offer last night.

But let us look beyond the fact that almost every young designer on the runway in Dunedin last night referenced some designer from overseas (Givenchy, Balmain, Versace, Yohji Yamamoto, Balenciaga, McQueen et al).

Zamani said backstage after the show that she put 120 hours into each simple but very beautiful dress, made of fine pieces of pleated fabric that floated past like a light, fluffy cloud. They were beautiful, although I'm not sure that static photos really do them justice.

Other collections on the runway last night were stand out as well - my personal picks were Zamani, Laura Marshall's doily inspired menswear, Sophia Hardy's block colours inspired by obsessive compulsives, Dapheny Ho's futuristic vision in shades of beige and Glenn Yungnickel's bold pink menswear.

Emerging designer shows are always a delicate balance between creativity and wearability, although perhaps I look at it from too much of a "will it sell?" point of view.

At the end of the day, imaginative statement pieces will get attention, but a sense of reality is important if these young designers want to earn a living from working within the industry.