Going! Going! Gone!

Tickets for the much awaited fashion event Collections go on sale today and are expected to sell out fast. 

Eighty designers and two hours of entertainment make this a not to be missed fashion event.

Collections '08 is in its fifteenth year and is part of Otago Polytechnic’s annual student showcase EXCITE. It’s a rare chance for the public to see the creative work of our future New Zealand designers.

Students’ creations from across the Bachelor of Design at the School of Fashion will take to the catwalk. Third-year graduate collections will be an emphasis of the event with each student show-casing a ‘mini-five-piece’ collection.

Third-year student and emerging designer Mason Tutbury is out to impress on the runway.

“EXCITE is an awesome idea for us to have one last opportunity before we graduate to say ‘hey look at me, this is what I’m about! Look at my designs.’”

Tutbury's hard at work preparing for the event and a ‘dark yet pretty’ theme is fast emerging and may frame the final collection we see from him on the night.

“I love making big dresses. I love making avant-grade theatrical things. Pretty but black, lots of black, has to have black.”

Tutbury says the ‘mini-five-piece’ collections are ‘utterly priceless’ and much cherished items.

“Most of them are kept because it’s our first little collection, like our wee babies and we just can’t part from them. I don’t think any have been sold in the past, it’s like one of those things, and it’s like keeping your old school books.”

The fashion teaching team have been working round-the-clock with students preparing for the event that is fast becoming recognised as an innovative fixture on New Zealand’s fashion calendar.

Academic leader of fashion Margo Barton predicts this year’s show will be bigger and better than ever and the 600-plus audience can expect to be captivated with a student showcase like no other.

“The Fashions span the gamut from innovative twists on wearable tailoring that have wide appeal to the extravagant avant-grade that may even challenge the most hardened fashionista” Barton says.

Following last years success, Collections will once again be held at Wilson Parking building, 360 Cumberland Street on 15 November at 8:30pm. For tickets contact Otago Polytechnic – 0800 762 786. Price: $40 seated or $30 standing.