ANZFW announces preliminary list of confirmed designers

29 Jul '09

4 min read

Organisers of the biggest fashion event on the New Zealand calendar are promising a full schedule for the ninth year of Air New Zealand Fashion Week. A preliminary list of confirmed designers was announced this afternoon to partners and media at the Westin Hotel, the official hotel of Air New Zealand Fashion Week.

The designer list comes with an advisory that more labels are expected to confirm their place at the event before the full schedule of shows is released in early September.

The collections will run from Monday 21 September to Friday 25th September showcasing the Autumn/Winter 2010 collections of not only New Zealand's top and emerging designers but featuring a number of international designers as well.

The announcement included a message of thanks for the support of the event's sponsors and partners from Managing Director, Pieter Stewart who acknowledged the importance of these entities to the continued success and profile of the event.

The priority of organisers is to keep the collections fresh and global according to Stewart, who also revealed a number of new initiatives.

“We recognised early on that 2009 was going to be an extremely challenging year for the fashion industry, so we've cut our cloth accordingly. If there is one thing we've learnt at Air New Zealand Fashion Week it's to adapt and change in difficult times. Along with the list of returning designers we've also selected a number of new designers, there are international designer shows and we've created new format shows which will make 2009 a year to remember,” she said.

For the second year running Air New Zealand Fashion Week will once again welcome Australian designers to its runway and there is expected to be huge interest in the first US designer label to show at Air New Zealand Fashion Week. Designers Richie Rich and Pamela Anderson are behind the MUSE label, an eco and animal friendly line of swimwear, ready to wear and shoes. MUSE will be launched at New York Fashion Week in early September and then the pair will bring the label to the runway at Air New Zealand Fashion Week on September 25th.

Up and coming stars of the New Zealand and Australian fashion industry will feature in the GHD New Generation show. These 8 designers will each team up with media magazine partners and show as segments within the group show.

Another new feature is The Diet Coke – “Little Black Dress Show” featuring 5 of New Zealand's top designers and 5 of Australia's top designers, who will be custom making garments for this group show.

The inaugural Miromoda Show has been added to the Fashion Week schedule. The show is a result of the Miromoda Fashion Design Awards that were held recently in Wellington and will feature 8 aspiring Maori fashion designers who were chosen to show from a group of 20 finalists.

Set for a prime front row seat is Asian celebrity and former model, Denise Keller. Now working in Singapore as a presenter for MTV Asia and the Discovery channel, Keller who has graced the covers of Vogue, Elle, New Woman, Style, Harper's Bazaar, FHM, Hong Kong Women's Weekly and Cleo is said to already be an avid fan of New Zealand fashion designers.

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