What started as a suspected spam email ended in a dream come true for fashion designer Amelia Boland.
The Otago Polytechnic graduate will travel to New York next month to take part in Nolcha Fashion Week.
The four-day event for independent and emerging designers runs during New York Fashion Week.
"I was going through them and laughing at the ones offering to put $10,000 in my bank account, and I read one asking if I wanted to be part of New York Fashion Week. I was like 'haha, what a good one' and then I thought 'that was quite specific'," she said.
After replying to confirm it was real, her focus turned from excitement to funding the trip and making five new pieces to add to her graduate collection.
The invitation came after her polytechnic graduate collection was selected for the iD Dunedin Fashion Week.
She supposes a Nolcha Fashion Week scout saw the video of iD online and they then approached her.
Miss Boland, who sewed her first skirt when she was 4 and her first dress when she was 7, had always dreamed about going to New York.
"It's given me the confidence that I would definitely look into what it would take to launch my own line," she said.
She will travel to New York on September 5 for nine nights and show her garments in a collective fashion show with about 10 other designers.
Nolcha also offered a range of PR events and "meet and greets" with "everybody and anybody", including Vogue.
The experience cost her $US5000 ($NZ6080) for the fashion show and PR events.
A bank loan and donations from people in her home town, Nelson, had made the trip a possibility, but every cent was worth it for the "massive" experience.
Since graduating last year, she had been working in retail in Auckland and applying for jobs with New Zealand designers.
She hoped the time in New York would allow her to make some connections and land a job over there.
"A girl can dream."
