iD Fashion Week still looking for sponsors

Why do the fat-walleted followers of fashion snub iD Dunedin Fashion Week?

iD is gaining real international attention.

Tickets for the main fashion show, with its lengthy catwalk on the historic Dunedin Railway Station's platform, are now selling out within hours of release.

Yet the iD Dunedin committee, headed by energetic Dunedin lawyer Susie Staley, is continually cash-strapped.

No big sponsors are lining up for a piece of the action.

Corporates told D Scene there was only so much money to go around and they were looking for the biggest bang they can get for their buck – usually an international bang.

So far, the committee has raised only half of what it needs to stage iD 2010.

Undaunted, though, it has decided to forge on.

iD veteran and New Zealand fashion designer Dunedin-based Margi Robertson summed it up: "These events are not cheap to produce and once you get up to this professional level of showing, you can't go back."

The past two iD Dunedin Fashion Weeks have had major backing from the Southern Trust.

The trust's chief executive Karen Shea says legislation now limited further major commitment from the trust.

iD committee member top New Zealander designer Tania Carlsson predicted iD will get a backer.

The secret might be to woo Auckland corporates to iD so they could experience it for themselves, Carlsson said.

At the moment, the event competed with some fairly aggressive, high profile charities, she said.

"And to some degree corporates are feeling they should give to people who are disadvantaged as opposed to fashion.

"And that's quite hard for us because iD is not a frivolous thing. It's not that it's about fashion, it's about sustaining young designers."

The future lay with the unique Emerging Designers Awards, which now attracted entries from around the world, Carlsson said.

"That's the area of growth in terms of the more progressive avant garde incredible level of design that you see coming through the Emerging Designers. And that is where the focus of the media will be. It's obviously where we are quite focused because that's the thing that's going to grow and it's going to bring the international media coverage.

"The more we can have that competition exposed, the more media, the more money we'll have access to."

Carlsson believed part of the problem in attracting sponsorship was that the iD Fashion Show was never about the money, unlike other large fashion events. The show was about celebrating creativity and pride she said.

It was not a pre-season show like many others designed to generate sales to in-store buyers.

Dunedin-based fashion designer Donna Tulloch, of the Mild Red label, said she had sensed the switch towards young designers as iD evolved. The event was not dependent on the Dunedin fashion scene as designers had come and gone in the city, and that was of no consequence to iD, she said.

It's tomorrow's designers that matter, she added.

Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said it was Emerging Designers that turned heads at Australian Vogue last year. It sent top fashion journo Damien Woolnough to iD Dunedin Fashion Week.

"[Woolnough] thought it was fantastic.

"He was extremely impressed, mostly by the emerging designers because that's kind of new stock, cutting edge new seasons stuff."

Saxton said the young designers competition carried the promise of more international recognition and sponsorship would follow.

"What it's seeing there is completely and utterly new. Its not fashion that's already in the shops."

Gabrielle Hervey, the managing director of WOW! – Wellington's now globally renowned World of Wearable Art event – said WOW's early days were not easy financially either. Sponsorship was hard for WOW which started small in Nelson, and it had taken 21 years to get to where it was now, she said.

The turning point came with the opening of the WOW museum at Nelson and a changing tack to sponsorship.

"WOW has slowly has worked its brand and got stronger.

"In about 2000 we hired a professional marketing and sponsorship manager. She's the one who drives the protection of the brand the development of good strong sponsorship partnerships."

Privately, some connected to the industry in Dunedin believe iD sponsorship initiatives do need a harder sell to more potential local backers.

Karen Shea believed securing sponsorship would be easier if there were more corporate head offices in Dunedin.

Personally she believed local corporates or the city council should be pick up the tab.

"The committee needs somebody needs to step up and commit for five years.

"iD is a huge thing for Dunedin.

"It brings money into the city.

"For a very small investment, I'm sure they would get a much greater return."