Style Starters Have Designs on Sydney

Style Starters Have Designs on Sydney
New Zealand's budding fashion designers are about to find out who can use Sydney's Australian Fashion Week catwalk as their runway to international success.

The opportunity will be decided in a business assistance competition to be judged this week.

Finalists have been trimmed to eight design companies in the first New Zealand version of Australia's Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition.

The designers - with one to five years' commercial experience - present their latest collections in a runway show in Auckland on Friday in a bid to win $5000, an opportunity to show their collections during Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in Sydney in May, and ongoing mentoring from established industry players.

Graeme Lewsey, a spokesman for organiser Australian Fashion Innovators, said the programme had been running in Australia for four years and had been extended to New Zealand designers in recognition of how well they did on the international fashion stage.

Lewsey would be judging alongside Nom D designer Margi Robertson, Sunday Star-Times style editor Stacy Gregg and buyers Madeline Healy and Jo Gould from Auckland's Muse.

Dunedin designer Robertson said the exposure would be amazing for the young designers.

"Showing what you can do on the catwalk in Sydney is pretty daunting, especially from a financial point o