Air New Zealand Fashion Week Innovation Awards
The Air New Zealand Fashion Innovation Awards 2009 winners were announced at the Fashion Week opening ceremony at Auckland’s Viaduct Marine Harbour Village on Monday September 21.
‘From the Runway to the Runway’ designers were invited to create an iconic outfit which must be suitable for comfortable long haul airline travel. Designers were challenged to bring to life their creativity and export aspirations under the umbrella ‘Taking New Zealand Fashion Creativity to the World’.
Twenty-seven Names emerged as the public favourite and took home the $10,000 travel prize. Stolen Girlfriends Club won the overall $30,000 travel prize, which was judged by a panel of fashion and creative industry influencers including Pieter Stewart, 62 Model’s Sara Tetro and Colenso BBDO Managing Director Brent Smart.
Air New Zealand Fashion Week
The first day of fashion shows kicked off on Tuesday September 22 with last year’s Air New Zealand award winner and fashion designer Cybele Wiren.
Amongst the newcomers to hit the runway this year are designers Andrea Moore, Julian Danger, House of EZIS, Emma Ford, ISBIM, Oyl, Riddle Me This, Serena Fagence, Trix & Dandy and Tara Cunniffe. The New Generation group show will showcase eight up and coming designers on Thursday September 24.
Some of the most sought after shows of the week include Zambesi, Nom*D, Kate Sylvester, Trelise Cooper, Karen Walker, Stitch Ministry, Adrian Hailwood, Alexandra Owen, Sable & Minx, Annah Stretton and Huffer.
A highlight on the 2009 schedule is the very first US fashion label to be showcased at Air New Zealand Fashion Week. A*Muse is a ready to wear collection by L.A. designer Richie Rich and inspired by celebrity model Pamela Anderson, who will both be present at the much talked about show on Friday 25th September at 5pm in the Westpac Tent.
Seated front row in a number of shows this year will be Asian celebrity and supermodel Denise Keller from Singapore. Keller has recently been touring the world with Al Gore speaking on climate change and is the face of Discovery Channel and MTV channels in Asia and has a keen eye for New Zealand fashion.
Buyers and Showrooms
Air New Zealand Fashion Week Managing Director Pieter Stewart commented on the importance of buyers and showrooms.
“Buyers have always been crucially important to Air New Zealand Fashion Week designers, but increasingly we’re benefiting from bringing out international showrooms and fashion agencies to represent our local labels. Asia and the United States are continued focus areas for us with a great number of ANZFW designers already selling in these regions.”
The international buyers include:
Husband and wife Brian Eible and Katy Tyler from Foxy Lady, who together own two large Florida fashion stores. Foxy Lady stocks a number of NZ labels with current gross sales figures at USD$5m and still growing. Eible and Tyler also work to proactively link ANZFW with showrooms in the US.
From Hong Kong is Lianna Chan from ENZYME fashion agency and Vicky Chan from General Cucumber who together market New Zealand designer brands into HK, China and other countries in the Asia Pacific region. Furthermore the pair plan to take New Zealand talents further abroad to the Paris tradeshow in Fall/Winter.
From Russia CARA & CO (Roza Kamenev and business partner Alexey Oleshov) will be scouting out high fashion labels for their business which is listed by The Guardian as “one of the best boutiques in the world.”
From renowned Asian showroom and media company “H3O” is Jason Lee Coates and Hirohito Suzuki who will be representing countries Japan, Singapore and Dubai. Lee Cotes is a pioneer of Asian publishing industry having worked for numerous high profile publications such as Elle, L’Officiel, Harper’s Bazaar and Oyster. As well as representing H3O the pair will be buying for fashion boutiques in the Middle East including Dubai boutique Valleydez.
