Kiwi fashion fusion

It might be a Kiwi show, but Australians will have a big presence at Air New Zealand Fashion Week, reports Tracey McEldowney.

Every year at about this time Jo Griffin packs her suitcase, her passport and an open cheque book and boards a plan for a three-hour trip across the Tasman.
As the owner of Victorian-based Blondies boutiques, Griffin considers Air New Zealand Fashion Week (ANZFW) a necessary pilgrimage - and this year is no exception.
Staged in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour from September 19 to 22, the annual autumn/winter frock fest has always proved an irresistible draw card for Australians with as many as 150 Aussie buyers, exhibitors, guests and media expected to make the trek to New Zealand's largest city this year.
Figures from Statistics New Zealand and the World Trade Atlas show Australia was the largest importer of New Zealand clothing and footwear in the year to May 2006, accounting for a staggering $221.7 million (71 per cent) of the country's total apparel exports, ahead of the US at $28.6 million (9.1 per cent), the UK at $22.4 million (7.1 per cent) and Japan $3.7 million (1.1 per cent).
Local trade authority New Zealand Trade & Enterprise says most significant New Zealand fashion brands already have a presence in Australia with Trelise Cooper, Zambesi, Canterbury, Line 7, Rodd and Gunn and World among those to have also established their own retail stores here.
With such over-riding similarities between the two markets, ANZFW managing director Pieter Stewart says Australian buy-in is critical to ANZFW's overall success.
"Australia is our biggest and closest market as well as being in the same season. It is often the first export destination for many designers therefore it is vital we foster growth at every level. We still see a lot of potential for most designers in Australia."
While unable to offer an exact amount of the business done at each of the past five shows, Stewart says year-upon-year the amount of business down at the event increases, with the last completed study showing ANZFW 2004 raised about $13.2 million in apparel sales.
Keen to build further on this, this year's event has been brought forward a month in a move Stewart and participating designers believe will appear more attractive to international buyers.
"We changed the dates to coincide with buying schedules which we expect to have a really positive effect on orders as well as enabling the designers to use the collateral of fashion week for their look books and sales support. If buyers attending ANZFW are at the end of their buying schedule as [they would have been if the event was staged] in October, there is understandably limited budget left, and as the designers have bought their selling seasons further and further forward to meet the market, many found they were using fashion week principally for profile. The dates to show this year were decided by the designers themselves and this way we hope that the sales equal the media profile."
But while this now means the date of the event now coincides with London Fashion Week, the clash appears to have had little impact on the ANZFW schedule with Sabatini, Mala Brajkovich and World the only big-name homegrown labels not showing at the event.
Despite the no-shows, Stewart takes a philosophical approach to who is - and who isn't - included in this year's line-up.
"Each year designers need to decide where they want to take their business and how they want to achieve it. Each designer has their own reasons for not showing whether they are simply not ready yet or need to concentrate their efforts in other areas. Mala [Brajkovich] has never shown at fashion week yet and we look forward to the time her business is ready to take that step. However it is our job to support the designers that do show and I am delighted with how full the schedule is."
While the list of big name buyers attending the event had yet to be released at the time of press, Stewart says after meeting with the on-schedule designers at the end of last year, all agreed their major targets are Australia, the US and Asia. As a result, ANZFW brand manager Myken Stewart travelled through Asia meeting with prospective buyers and media keen to attend the event.
She claims this resulted in "unprecedented" interest in the event with a further trip to the US to meet with American Vogue senior editors, as well as buyers and other media, also proving fruitful.
Celebrating the event's sixth anniversary this year, organisers have also sought to build on past successes with perennial favourite the Verge Breakthrough Designer category - featuring such names as Charmaine Love, Keucke, Toushe and Firefly - and the AUT "Rookie" graduate show (featured officially for the first time last year), remaining on schedule.
However, several changes have been introduced to this year's event to ensure its continual development.
These include inviting streetwear designers to show for the first time, and adding an extra day on the end for the public to attend.
Dubbed ANZFW 4 U, Stewart describes the ticketed open day as a "fusion of music, art and fashion". The day includes the opportunity for anyone to soak up the atmosphere of the week with in-season Designer Selection Shows, a video room highlighting the catwalk action of the week and a Designer Garage Sale (door sales only) where attendees are given opportunity to buy New Zealand samples and end of season lines.
Stewart says the decision to have greater public participation in the event was driven by demand.
"Each year we have increased the number of ways that the public have been able to access fashion week but we have continually received requests for there to be more as everything sold out and people always missed out.
"We also saw it as a great opportunity for our sponsors, who have been so supportive, to reach the end consumer of the clothes. There are public events all through the week as well with Designer Selection shows on site to give people a 'dinner and a show' option."
As was the case in other years, industry body Fashion Industry New Zealand (FINZ) plans to work closely with NZTE to see where it can help buyers with information on designers.
FINZ chief executive Mapihi Opai says her organisation has taken a stand on site, at which it will house cubby-holes for registered international buyers as a central drop off point for invitations, tickets and promotional material.
As an official supplier sponsor, Finz will also provide up to 20 "hosts" to international delegates to ensure they are well taken care of during their stay.
Stewart admits the show has come a long way since its inception in 2001 and claims seeing the show grow and watching the designers grow with it is a personal highlight.
"ANZFW is a year-round business that has taken New Zealand fashion into new markets and in many ways elevated the whole industry in New Zealand to a new professional level. Being a designer is now a real career option and many of the new designers we will see on the catwalk this year are examples of what the growth of fashion week is all about."