Sun, 04 Oct 2009 3:51p.m.
By Elizabeth Hayes
Auckland Fashion Week may have been a huge success, but Dunedin designers have been dealt a cruel blow.
The colourful iD Fashion Week has struggled to get funding in the past. It now has a fortnight to secure sponsorship before next year's show is called off for good.
Dunedin designer Charmaine Reveley has just returned from Auckland Fashion Week, and is now hard at work preparing her summer collection. She credits the city's iD Fashion Week for launching her career, and is devastated with the news next year's event may be canned.
"It would be a really sad loss for the community," she says. "I mean, it adds so much vibrancy to Dunedin. It's a week of fun and it's getting better every year."
ID Fashion celebrated their 10th year in March, pulling in 23 national and international designers for a sold-out crowd. And while organisers say it was a success, a lack of sponsorship is the reason it is under threat.
Southern Trust have sponsored the show, held at the Dunedin Railway Station, for the past two years. They have now pulled out, leaving the future of the show in jeopardy.
Five hundred thousand dollars is needed to run the event, and while there's some funding, they say if no one steps forward within the next fortnight they will have no choice but to call it off.
"If we don't get sponsorship, I guess it won't go ahead, so that would be terrible for all the young designers," says Margo Barton, iD Fashion Dunedin. "Not just in Dunedin, but throughout Dunedin and internationally."
Designers like Ms Reveley, who just hopes the show will go on so other fledgling fashionistas are given the same opportunity to jumpstart their career like she did.
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