Fashion Week invitation stuns designer

AUT fashion graduate Carmen Kirstein (right) with a model and examples of her designs. Photo / supplied via Facebook

Working at a retail store has been a hard reality for a budding fashion designer dreaming of making it big.

So when an email dropped into Aucklander Carmen Kirstein's inbox inviting her to a prestigious international fashion show, she thought it was a joke.

"It came completely out of the blue. I just got an email that said: "We'd love to have you at Vancouver Fashion Week."

It was so out of the blue that she initially wondered whether she was being scammed.

"But I Skyped with the CEO, and it was all real," she laughed.

The 22-year-old former Pakuranga College student graduated last December from the Auckland University of Technology with a degree in fashion design. Like her friends, the young designer has found it hard to find a job in the industry and has spent most of the year working at retail store Repertoire.

Asked what she did there, she said: "Just scanning the barcode, saying: 'That's $27 thank you.' It is so difficult [to get into the fashion industry] in New Zealand."

Kirstein will show her collection - clothes she made in her final year at university - at the fashion show in Canada, which runs from September 28 to October 4.

She described her garments as elegant and formal, featuring long and flowing dresses and trains made from delicate materials.

"A lot of the stuff is more handwork - a lot of applique. I like doing more one-off pieces and making more a piece of artwork than something you'd just throw on."

Kirstein said to get into fashion design in New Zealand, people needed to do internships - usually unpaid and for a long time.

"A lot of the places require a minimum of between one and three years. People will work free for a whole year just to get that experience.

"It's what quite a few people do. Those who have parents to support them are quite lucky, but others don't have that - they have to work."

She had fashion graduate friends who worked in Starbucks because they couldn't find jobs in the industry.

"It's all about connections, really," she said.

Kirstein is now fundraising to get to Vancouver next month and has asked for help via the Givealittle fundraising site.