On the rise

Jennifer Hancox's designs are themed around old world glamour. Photo / Supplied

Jay McCarroll, the first winner of Project Runway, recently came out and gave young designers wanting to launch their own label a small piece of advice. "Don't. Go and be an accountant." He then went on to moan about how tough it is to combine design skills with business know-how, and came out with this gem of a one-liner. "You don't expect an accountant to know how to drape a dress, but we're supposed to know how to do accounting."

Clearly he's a bit of an idiot, and one should never take much notice of what a reality TV star has to say, but his outburst did get me thinking about young designers and fashion students graduating into a recession.

I began to feel a bit sorry for them. Hard times and all of that. We've all heard and read about stores closing, labels folding, the world imploding and so on. It's boring and negative - which is why it's great that the local fashion community will come together this Friday night to celebrate the next generation of fashion talent at the iD Dunedin Emerging Designer Awards.

The gothic city is known for being an incubator for young creative talent, with iD Dunedin acting as a platform for designers, both new and established, to present their designs to the public. Anjali Stewart, one half of Twenty-seven Names, studied fashion at Otago Polytechnic and showed her graduate collection at iD in her final year of study. "The school of design at the Polytech is really industry focused, so burgeoning young designers have the knowledge and skill set to start their own labels," she says. Perhaps McCarroll should have studied in Dunedin and learnt how to do more than simply drape a dress? "Dunedin is a really good place to start something creative because the industry and Polytech are so supportive - there is always someone to ask advice from or somewhere to do screen printing."

Stewart and her Twenty-seven Names co-designer Rachel Easting will present their latest collection at the main iD show on Saturday night, which will also feature ranges from Tanya Carlson, Nom.d, Charmaine Reveley, World and more. It's sure to be a massive celebration: this year is iD's tenth birthday.

As for those who are set to shape the future of the fashion industry, more than 100 recent fashion graduates from around the world entered their garments into the Emerging Designers Awards. Only 31 finalists will show their collection at the awards ceremony on Friday night. Among them will be recent AUT graduate Felicity Speedy; her collection is themed around sustainability and features reworked tents as raincoats. The 21-year-old calls it "guilt-free" fashion, something we like the sound of.

Another AUT graduate in the running for the top prize is Nadeesha Godamunne, 21, whose Trompe L'oeil collection was a crowd favourite at the AUT Rookie Show earlier this year. She uses simple shift dresses as a canvas for her illustrations; which on first look appear to be several layered garments but are in fact just one.

Dunedin local and Otago Polytechnic graduate Jennifer Hancox, 21, defies the student designer stereotype (dark, drapey, inspired by Belgian designers) with her feminine collection themed around old world glamour and burlesque.

Twenty-one-year-old Massey University graduate Elizabeth Ting's range examines religion and branding, and features sculptured dresses and a quirky bright print of religious figures.

But it's not just younger designers who are represented in the awards: Ruth Bucknell is a 51-year-old mother who studied at Massey University, and has a collection of netted pieces based around the ideas of the modern working "superwoman" and mother.

The awards attract overseas attention, with finalists this year coming from Australia, Belgium, Israel, India, Italy, Taiwan and Sweden. Hadas Betzalel, a 26-year-old former social officer in the Israeli army, will show her distinctive collection based on anatomy. Finalist Sarah Schofield, 22, studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and entered her beautiful collection at the suggestion of her tutors. Inspired by Christian Dior's feminine New Look, the collection features pieces made up of exposed metal boning, sheer fabric and New Look shapes.

Of course, who will win the top prize is still undecided - the judging panel meet tomorrow to pick the winners. This year's panel is made up of World's Francis Hooper, Nom.d's Margi Robertson, fashion editor Katie Newton, fashion consultant Ross Gamble and Stefano Sopelza, a Mittelmoda Fashion Award Project Supervisor.

Up for grabs is the Mittelmoda prize, which allows direct entry into the Italian based competition in September, as well as the top emerging designer prize of $5000 - a sum that would surely come in handy for any new designer in times like these.