The countdown to tomorrow night’s official opening of the iD Dunedin Fashion Week continued yesterday with seven models having their last run-through at the Dunedin Railway Station.
Darryl McNamara of Aart Model Management said about 60 male and female models would be used during the week, including about 15 new models, with the majority coming from Dunedin and some from Central Otago.
iD Dunedin Fashion Committee chairwoman Cherry Lucas said this year would be the first time a cruise ship had been in the city on the Friday night of the event.
That provided "major logistic issues" because Dunedin Railways was contracted to drop passengers at the station. The show was usually in "major set-up mode" on the day, which could have been problematic.
Instead, the catwalk would be built the day before so the runway could be used for the Emerging Designer Awards, and stay in place while the cruise ship passengers disembarked.
If the awards were being held at Dunedin Town Hall it would have been more expensive because of the need for more security staff hired for longer, and because there would have been "a crossover" of equipment that needed to be used at both venues.
With the awards at the railway station rather than the town hall, all spectators would be able to get close to the models and designer clothes.
"That’s going to be fantastic."
Ms Lucas said the event would suffer from singer Adele doing three shows in Auckland over the same weekend.
"Unfortunately we couldn’t do anything about it," she said.
"We’re obviously competing in the same market; people only have so much disposable income and it obviously has had an impact on our ticket sales."
The plus side was there were more flights into Dunedin, as more jets had been put on to cope with demand.
"We think there’s more out-of-towners, which is great for the city."
Event publicist Amie Richardson said an Emerson’s beer has been specially brewed for the occasion.
