Fashion graduates selected for iD Emerging Designer Awards

Otago Polytechnic Fashion Design graduates Phoebe Lee and Rosette Hailes-Paku have been selected for the iD International Emerging Designer Awards in Dunedin in March.

The pair, who graduated at the end of 2018, are among 37 talented designers who will show their collections at the awards, which will held at the Regent Theatre on 15-16 March as part of iD Dunedin Fashion Week.

Phoebe and Rosette are both “surprised and delighted” at their selection.

“I have always been inspired by the designers at the ID Emerging Designer Awards,” Phoebe says. “I always dreamt of being ‘that person’ who got to show their outfits.”

Rosette: “My lecturers encouraged me to enter, so I’m stoked.”

Supported by Otago Polytechnic, the iD International Emerging Designer Awards is Australasia’s only international young designer competition.

Dr Margo Barton, Otago Polytechnic Professor of Fashion and iD Dunedin Fashion Creative Director, says designers from the top fashion schools around the world are eager to visit Dunedin to network and launch their collections before an international audience.

Each emerging designer will show five garments, which will be assessed by a panel of all-star Kiwi fashion designers. The judges are designers Tanya Carlson, Benny Castles (WORLD), Margi Robertson (NOM*d) and Kate Sylvester, as well as VIVA editor Amanda Linnell.

The iD International Emerging Designers will show at both nights of the iD Dunedin Fashion Show. Winners of the iD International Emerging Designer Awards will be announced during the Friday show and all the finalists’ collections and the winners’ announcement will be repeated on Saturday.

Read the Otago Daily Times article