Some young designers came with big ideas about freedom, saving the oppressed, exposing the effects of viruses and to question ideas of beauty.
Others were inspired by human skin, came with a sense of humour and developed accessories mimicking hairy chests and other hairy body parts.
Altogether, they brought the exuberance of the recently graduated as they layered their personalities and passions and grand thoughts about the state of the world into pieces of fabric they had dyed, teased and sometimes tortured into strange shapes they draped on impossibly proportioned models at the Dunedin Centre.
It was the day before the iD International Emerging Designer Awards - in fact it was judgement day - when the 38 contestants fronted up to established members of the industry to give it their best shot.
They came from as close as Dunedin, and as far away as Italy and Spain, with the usual strong representation from Australia.
The sometimes quite nervous contestants gave their presentations, fidgeting with their accompanying documents and occasionally dropping them as they gave their spiel.
They each had five minutes to present, and then two minutes to answer questions.
The judges were looking for originality, creativity and the quality of garments.
They motioned the models to turn around, hold out their arms, or approach the judging table so they could feel the fabrics between their fingers.
Former Dunedin designer and judge Tanya Carlson said early in the afternoon the day was ‘‘enormous'', with the 38 contestants the most the event had hosted so far.
‘‘We're running on a really tight timeline,'' she said.
‘‘We've seen all manner of things.
‘‘We've seen yoga mats made as clothes, we've seen dyed peacock feathers, lots of embellishment.
‘‘We've seen some incredible colour palettes."
There had, however, been ‘‘lots of black, as usual''.
In comparison with years gone by, Ms Carlson said the collections this year were more diverse.
‘‘That's probably the way fashion is anyway; there's not any particular trends.
‘‘Some years, you see very strong things about sustainability - we're seeing it all over the show at the moment.
‘‘It seems to represent every walk of life, there's a lot of comment on transgender and fluidity, there's still a lot to be said about using natural fabrics, and not using animal products.''
The awards begin at 7.30pm today at the Dunedin Town Hall, with contestants vying for prizes of up to $6000.
Winners will be announced at the end of the show.
