Designers avoid NZ Fashion Week

Sera Lilly will show bridal wear. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Some of the country's top designers have turned their backs on next month's NZ Fashion Week.

One said she would get more bang for her buck at Australian Fashion Week.

The country's premier fashion showcase begins three weeks earlier than usual, on August 29, to avoid clashing with the Rugby World Cup.

The Herald on Sunday has obtained preliminary details of who will be showing, and when.

Conspicuous by their absence are Karen Walker, Cybele, Nom*D and Wellington-based Alexandra Owen.

Sera Lilly, a favourite of past years, has opted out of staging a stand-alone show and is instead joining a group show featuring bridalwear.

Lilly said the cost of a big show was not worth her while. It started at $25,000, with "tens of thousands more" needed for models, stylists, samples and other items.

"We decided it was not going to hurt us not to be there this year. "We've done it for the past four years and last year it cost us a lot of money."

Lilly said NZ Fashion Week director Pieter Stewart did a fantastic job but New Zealand was too small.

She was looking at taking part in a group show at Australian Fashion Week next April instead, with a view to opening a boutique across the Tasman within two years.

Nom*D designer Margi Robertson said her label was also counting the pennies, having lost its Christchurch store in the earthquake. It cost about $60,000 for Nom*D to show at Fashion Week, she said, and sponsorship money had diminished in the past three years.

Alexandra Owen is absent this year, concentrating on overseas markets. She has been based in New York for several months this year.

Cybele Wiren has also opted out of Fashion Week, with her second child due next month. "She's not stopping because of the baby," her spokesman said. "It's just that Fashion Week wasn't an option this year."

Karen Walker declined to comment on her absence.