iD showcases fresh fashion talent

Vibrant colour and design, hand-dyed wool, tapestry, leather work, and digital printing are just some of the innovative techniques used by graduates showing at next year’s iD Dunedin Fashion Week.

Five exceptional graduate collections from the Otago Polytechnic School of Design have been selected from a field of 25 on display at the recent Collections 12 runway show to launch their careers at the 2013 iD Dunedin Fashion Show on Friday 15 March and Saturday 16 March 2013.

Rakel Blomsterberg, 26 (Iceland), Olivia Bloxham, 20 (Timaru), Samuel Ralph, 21 (Invercargill), Tansy Morris, 23 (Dunedin) and Samantha O’Reilly, 22 (New Plymouth) will showcase their final-year collections alongside high-profile New Zealand fashion designers, and emerging international designers. Since 2002, the event has included a special section for graduate designers - attracting top talent from Dunedin’s prestigious fashion school, with many talented graduates going on to high flying fashion careers through gaining professional runway experience and exposure as part of iD Fashion Week.

Three of the graduates - Blomsterberg, Bloxham and Ralph - were also part of the six-strong fashion student contingent chosen to show at the prominent Shanghai Fashion Week in October.

The graduate selection panel was comprised of: Tim Pollock (Dunedin Public Art Gallery), Margi Robertson, (Nom-D) and Charmaine Reveley (fashion designer).

Margi Robertson, creative director of Nom-D was impressed by this year’s graduating class, saying it was wonderful to see the progress made year on year by Otago Polytechnic graduates.

"Each year the collections seem to be more advanced and presented in such a professional manner without compromising on personal creativity," she says.

Dr Margo Barton, Otago Polytechnic’s School of Design academic leader and principal lecturer (Fashion), says this year’s crop of graduates were incredibly talented and she was looking forward to seeing them at iD.

"Colour is back - in fact, there is nearly no black in this year's selection. New technology combines with traditional techniques to allow these 2012 graduates to each tell their own fashion stories.

Selecting from a catwalk show is a real challenge. You respond to the drama and spectacle in front of you, and it is exactly the right place to select the collections which would create just the right excitement for the iD Dunedin railway show. I can imagine that the selectors had a terrible time reducing their selections to five, as this year was an extremely high achieving one."