Top designers at Canterbury Collections and Awards

Top designers up for honours at the prestigious Canterbury Collections and Awards

The creations of a record 30 fashioner designers will be unveiled at the prestigious American Express Canterbury Fashion Collections and Awards night at the Christchurch Art Gallery next week.

Variety the Children’s Charity will benefit about $10,000 from the function with the auction of some unprecedented items including diamond jewellery, fashion goods and world famous sports connections.

One of the prized items will be a framed New Zealand cricket shirt signed by the Black Caps plus an exclusive one hour coaching lesson for a school team by Chris and Lance Cairns.

Media from around New Zealand and Australia are attending the event which has become a must on the annual NZ fashion calendar.

The razzle-dazzle fashion show launches the 10 day long Showtime Canterbury celebrations.

More than 400 guests will view the sell-out show at the Christchurch Art Gallery on November 4. Around 500 people will attend at the after show party. Christchurch relaunched itself last year to the forefront of the country's fashion industry with the collections and awards event.

Designers this year will be vying for honours for lifetime achievement, high fashion, elegance, new designer, fashion icon and for best designer.

Takaaki Sakaguchi won last year’s best designer award, which is voted on by the public. Emily Drysdale (Untouched World), Malaika Grove and Vicky Wynn-Williams (Tango) and Cheryl Vuillermin (Lumiere) are among other designers entered this year.

Awards organiser Denyse Saunders said Canterbury’s stake in the world of fashion design will come under the spotlight with the awards night.

``We’ll have all the season's new designs and it’s always exciting to see the latest ranges of what our region’s chic designers have created. ``We have a lot of fashion shows in New Zealand which is great but this event actually recognises the achievements of our best talented designers with 14 special awards.’’

``This will be one of the major events on the New Zealand fashion calendar with 30 collections in line for 14 awards on the evening. It is a celebration of the Canterbury fashion industry and we will again showcase the best of the best.”

Among the models to strut their stuff this year is Kiwi Carolyn Kirby, a leading Australian-based model.

Buyers and fashion enthusiasts from around the country will get a chance to view the designers’ summer collections during a special fashion trail around Canterbury’s leading fashion designers and retailers on November 7.

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