Artist Jay Hutchinson is spending the 24 hours to 5pm today cutting fabric, screenprinting, heat-setting and sewing T-shirts in fashion store Company of Strangers.
The idea behind the performance was to bring attention, during iD Dunedin Fashion Week, to the price of T-shirts that could be bought in shopping malls, Mr Hutchinson said.
"Someone's made that T-shirt, it's come from overseas, so there's a factory that's profited, there's a shop that's profited - so how was this T-shirt even $5 in the first place?"
He was also concerned about the rise of "fast fashion" - cheap clothes that could be bought and thrown away.
He said his mother made clothes for him when he was young, but eventually buying the materials was more expensive than "buying the cheap stuff".
People had lost the ability to make clothes, and manufacturers struggled to do so in New Zealand in the face of cheap imports.
He said he got involved in the fashion week project through collaborations he had done in the past with Company of Strangers.
Shortly before he was due to start, he said he expected the 24-hour stint to become "an endurance project".
He fully expected the threads on his overlocker to break as the night wore on.
The project would be filmed on a time-lapse camera, which he planned to use as part of artist talks, or put on social media.
The finished product would be sold for a donation, the money raised going to Women's Refuge.
