By Sarah Robson
The models are prepped and primed for the runway and the bloggers have their laptops at the ready as the biggest week on the New Zealand fashion industry's calendar starts in Auckland on Monday.
More than 30 local designers - including Zambesi, Huffer, Juliette Hogan and Twenty-Seven Names - will be showcasing their autumn/winter 2013 collections at this year's New Zealand Fashion Week, which will be held at the Viaduct Events Centre.
Among the other designers sending a collection down the runway is Auckland-based Ingrid Starnes, who made her fashion week debut last year.
Starnes says the event is a way to get word out about her label, allowing people the chance to see the clothes and perhaps visit one of her stockists or stores.
"It is a wonderful way to showcase a whole collection and tell a great story with music and styling of the clothes," she says.
"Doing a show does push a collection to be fully rounded and so all the pieces talk to the other pieces."
Starnes says her show, called Hunt's End, is about the kind of eccentric after-hunt party you'd see at an English country estate.
"They're the kind of pieces you could mix and swap in and out of on an occasion party weekend," she says.
Invited international media and buyers will be treated to 28 different shows over the five-day event.
New Zealand Fashion Week was founded in 2001 by Pieter Stewart to help the local fashion industry promote their collections and brands offshore.
NZN