Designer City

Early 90s, Dunedin. A young, enthusiastic designer by the name of Tanya Carlson has just launched her first made to measure business out of one of the city’s iconic Moray Place buildings.

Located in the shadows of First Church’s gothic arches — architecture that would later influence collections and demi-couture garments — the upper storey space is filled with machinists who have learnt their craft from tailoring apprenticeships completed during the heyday of Dunedin’s manufacturing industry. They are skilled, experienced and eager to put their expertise to use.

“It was a great time to launch a fashion business in Dunedin,” says Carlson. “Rent was cheap, there were incredibly skilled seamstresses in town, Margi Robertson was bringing amazing international and New Zealand designers to Plume. Made in New Zealand was really big.”

In 1997, Carlson launched her own label — two years before the first iD Dunedin Fashion Week was established by a group of local designers eager to promote the city’s fashion.

“NOM*d, Donna Tulloch at Mild-Red, Nick Blanchet, Margo Barton, Toni Darling … there was this fantastic creative hub and a lot of interest in local fashion,” says Carlson.

Almost 20 years on and the South Island’s fashion capital is still thriving, with an industry that remains unique to the rest of the country.

A variety of boutique and designer stores showcase local and national designers, handcrafted garments and accessories, and carefully selected international collections. Dunedin retail offers a truly unique and intimate shopping experience — from George Street’s designer boutiques (Belle Bird, Slick Willy’s, Plume and Company Store, where you can sometimes strike it lucky and have designer Sara Munro help you choose garments) to Moray Place, complete with retail and gallery space Guild, Dada Boutique, various vintage treasure troves and Mild-Red’s retail home One York, where designer Donna Tulloch is often available to help fit shoppers.

The city’s established labels — NOM*d, Carlson, Mild-Red — are all grown up (Carlson is now based in Auckland but still considers Dunedin her spiritual homeland), while a new generation of designers — Charmaine Reveley, Company of Strangers (led by Sara Munro), Dada Manifesto, Danger Birds, Silk Body and, more recently, Julian Danger, Clothes I’ve Made, and eco designers Melanie Child and Fiona Clements (from label Senorita Awesumo) — also call Dunedin home.

Many are graduates from Fashion at the Otago Polytechnic’s Design School, which has produced numerous outstanding graduates over its 25-year-plus history, and is now extending its fashion offering to its Auckland campus.

Alongside Munro, Clements, Reveley, Child, and Shelley Tiplady (from Danger Birds and Belle Bird Boutique), other alumni include Anjali Stewart and Rachel Easting (from Twenty-seven Names) and 2013 iD Awards winner Rakel Blom.  Academic leader and professor of fashion, Dr Margo Barton — who was part of this year’s NZ Fashion Week opening event — says the Bachelor of Design (Fashion) and post-graduate courses are attracting students from New Zealand and abroad.

Part of the students’ third year includes being involved in iD Dunedin Fashion Week, working in a variety of roles and helping backstage at the iD International Emerging Designer Awards show — Barton’s ‘baby,’ now grown to adolescence as it heads into its 13th year in 2017.

“The Awards give new designers a global platform to launch their careers — as well as a chance to be critiqued by some of the world’s most influential industry leaders,” says Barton.

“This year’s judging panel included Not Just a Label’s Stefan Siegel, arguably one of the most important people in emerging designer fashion at the moment, UK-based designer Emilia Wickstead, and our own Kate Sylvester, Margi Robertson and Tanya Carlson.”

Alongside the awards, iD also delivers a platform for the city’s established designers, through its week-long programme culminating in the iD Fashion Show at the Dunedin Railway Station (to be held next year from March 18-26).  iD Fashion Week committee chair Cherry Lucas says the event has benefitted from a loyal base of supporters — from City Council to designers to businesses to attendees.

“For the psyche of the city, having a distinctive and vibrant fashion scene that is confident and forward is exciting,” says Lucas.

“Locals love seeing the likes of [UK milliner] Stephen Jones on the catwalk, wearing a hat that he has fashioned out of the front page of the Otago Daily Times, alongside a hat he made for pop icon Kylie Minogue.”

Designers say the benefits of living in Dunedin far outweigh any negatives associated with doing business outside a major North Island city.

“We are isolated for sure,” says Company of Strangers’ Sara Munro. “But if you have a mobile, fibre, couriers and an airport, you can do business from anywhere.

“Sometimes I think Raf Simons could be living and working in Dunedin and be pretty anonymous. You can do your own thing, be in your own bubble and be unaffected by the world of fashion. It’s great.”

To find out more, visit www.dunedinnz.com/visit/spring