Lucky strike for Glasgow Kiss

Designer James Dobson with one of his latest fashion creations. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

The old adage that a pair of good shoes will take you anywhere proved true for fashion designer James Dobson.

The 24-year-old is the winner of a major new fashion award, Mercedes Benz Start Up New Zealand, which will see him star at this year's Australian Fashion Week alongside some of fashion's big names.

"Straight after I had won I had the likes of Frances [Hooper] from World and Liz [Finlay] from Zambesi wanting to congratulate me," says Dobson. "But the first person who spoke to me was a Chinese woman who said, 'The shoes that you used in your show are traditional Chinese shoes. They are very, very lucky. As soon as I saw them, I knew that you were going to win."'

While using Kung Fu shoes on his catwalk models may have proved a fortuitous move for Dobson, there is little doubt it was the innovation and strength of his debut collection, Glasgow Kiss, that won the judge's admiration.

Competing against seven finalists for the chance to show at this year's Mercedes Benz Australian Fashion Week, his mix of beauty and darkness also impressed some of New Zealand's fashion heavyweights, who stood and applauded when Dobson was announced as the winner.

"It's the most surreal thing, because I'm just a little boy from the Hutt and just to hear those people - the people I so respect and admire in this industry - and to have them stand up and applaud you after your first collection was amazing."

Working under his label Jimmy D, Dobson's rise to success was somewhat meteoric.

"I feel like my life is kind of on fast forward at the moment," he admits.

Only two months ago Dobson was cutting out his collection on the floor of retail store Unity. He got strange looks from passersby who wondered if the shop was still open into the late hours of the night.

Having no formal training in fashion design, he is self-taught and credits much of his success to working for five years as a retail assistant.

"I guess I've learned the level that you have to come in at," he explains. "You start to notice how things are put together, how people finish things, and it's really from those two things that I have got to where I am.

Glasgow Kiss is an example of Dobson's maturity and shows his skill beyond his design years. The collection is full of parallels and juxtapositions, mixing silks and T-shirting.

"The whole collection is about contrasts. It's doing a really beautiful full-circle silk skirt then putting a hood on the back of it. It just shifts the concept of it, which I quite like," says Dobson.

While he won't go into detail about what he is planning to show at Australian Fashion Week, he is thankful he began designing the collection before winning his prize.

"If I had to sit down now and design it from scratch, thinking 'Okay, my second collection ever and I'm going to have to show it in Sydney', it might just be a little bit daunting," Dobson laughs. "But I'm working hard on it. I know there are going to be a lot of people watching what I do next, so I don't want to disappoint."

* The Jimmy D range is stocked at Unity, 11 Teed St, Newmarket.