This year, audiences at the iD fashion shows, held at Dunedin Railway Station over iD Dunedin Fashion Week, were treated to a new section showcasing leather from a Timaru-based leather wholesaler.New Zealand Light Leathers (NZLL) provides luxurious deer-nappa to international fashion powerhouses such as Prada and Gucci.
For the past three years NZLL had sponsored a prize as part of the iD International Emerging Awards, but was interested in building its profile further, so approached the iD committee to come up with ideas on other ways it could be involved in iD fashion week.
Committee member and Company of Strangers designer Sara Munro is familiar with NZLL leather products, having used them previously in her collections, and came up with the idea of the company donating leather to participating iD designers to create leather outfits for an exclusive section.
''The iD committee are always looking at ways to add variety to the iD shows, so when NZLL approached us with their interest in being further involved in iD and promoting their products, I suggested we created a new section to give more exposure for NZLL and to give the designers involved an opportunity be creative in a new way with the deer nappa, and make a one-off outfit,'' Munro said.
NZLL marketing manager Chrissie Brown said the company was excited by the opportunity to work with designers.
''Due to the fact we don't make our own garments, we rely on designers to transform our leather into garments and accessories and found the opportunity to donate leather was a great way to push our product.
"We're also passionate about supporting our local fashion industries,'' Brown said.
Company of Strangers
Due to the fact Company of Strangers uses leather in its accessories ranges, it wanted to put a its own twist on its use of the leather by treating it as a fabric.
''We usually patch our vintage leather together to create a whole piece, but with this project we thought we'd reverse it and patch together a whole lot of archive lace fabrics to create an evening dress.
"We chose to use their softest black nappa and created the larger panels of the dress with it, as well as a huge chunky zip, which gave it a motorcycle jacket aesthetic and finished it with a custom-made belt.''
Designer Sara Munro said her inspiration came from an image she saw in an early 1990s Dutch magazine, where fashion photographer Corinne Day had photographed a model wearing a patchwork vintage lace dress.
Mild Red
Mild Red is also no stranger to using leather in its collections and for the NZLL light leather section it choose to use forest green, creating an outfit based on its autumn/winter 2015 theme, Aviator.
The label created jodhpur pants with leather insets, a leather top, leather and merino knit sleeved ''flying coat'' with built-in knuckle gloves, merino knit scarf, small leather collar worn over the scarf and a canvas belt bag.
Designer Donna Tulloch said the label had received fantastic feedback from its NZLL outfit and would be making the flying coat it showcased to order.
NOM*d
NOM*d used black leather to create its outfit, which was based on its ''Noise'' collection.
''We created a look that would work well with the deer leather. Simplicity was key and it was also complementary with the combinations of fabrics that exist in our winter collection,'' designer Margi Roberston said. NOM*d's outfit was
an apron top, long length skirts and overlaying wrap apron, with a leather hat added to complete the look.
Robertson said if the NZLL section continued in the future she would be happy to be involved again.
Jane Sutherland
Having recently been reading about the courageous St Joan of Arc, designer Jane Sutherland was inspired to create an outfit with an emphasis on strong design for her NZLL garment.
Sutherland chose to use black and forest green to create a sleeveless dress with separate hood and said these colours worked well for the style and design aesthetic of the garment.
She said working with the leather was amazing and she would be using it in her up-and-coming collection.
