Hubbard dresses up for Fashion Week

Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard, right, is kitted out with clothes specially designed for him for Fashion Week by AUT Bachelor of Design student Bevan Avery, left. Picture / Martin Sykes

A year ago he was a Fashion Week novice, last night Dick Hubbard modelled a new look especially for the opening of the annual event.

Back then his dull business suit and tie probably raised more eyebrows among the fashion set than turning out like a working class Edwardian dandy to the official launch of the fifth Air New Zealand-sponsored Fashion Week.

Fashion victim or new style icon for the city, you be the judge, but Auckland's mayor has sure come a long way in 12 months in the role.

"I'm a cheerleader and you've got to be seen walking the talk," he told the Herald during a fitting of the outfit designed by AUT third-year fashion student Bevan Avery.

The cereal-maker turned politician admitted he'd done a bit of clothes shopping since getting the city's top job and remembered an early interview where he'd turned out with oats on the sole of his shoe.

He told the Fashion Week audience he'd swapped high fibre for high fashion.

Switching to serious mode, Mr Hubbard, who recently named the event as one of Auckland's 10 big ticket attractions, said the city was right behind it.

"We were here when Fashion Week was born and we're in it for the long haul."

One notable absentee was Helen Clark, who had Government forming as a good excuse for not attending the grand opening at the Viaduct harbour. That left Fashion Week director Pieter Stewart to step up to the podium.

"In the absence of the Prime Minister and to celebrate five years, I thought I'd open my own Fashion Week," she said.

And so tomorrow it all begins again, with more than 40 designers showing their clothes at what is essentially a trade show before an audience of local and overseas buyers and media. Throw in celebrities and favoured clients and the scene is set for a curious mix of schmoozing and serious business.

Some are there to sip champagne, but the real work is done behind the runways where models and dressers are on the treadmill of fast turnaround transformation while designers wonder whether their creations will sell.

From established names to newcomers like the mayor's outfitter, the aim is to attract the eye. Twenty-six-year-old Avery has the idea, saying his design "definitely has elements of everyday wear, but exaggerated for a fashion audience".

To those wondering what to wear next winter, many of the offerings will look outlandish, as may the mayor in olive velvet pants bunched at the ankle, a striped corduroy vest with leather closings and cotton shirt with generous cuffs. But what the outfit shows is a sure sense of colour and fabric combination and more importantly an idea, without which clothes are merely cladding rather than an expression of personal style.

The idea may not appeal, but it helps articulate what the designer is on about and lets fashion watchers see how their clothes may be styled, adapted and more importantly marketed for sale. In Avery's case the idea is exploring ways of making menswear more exciting "nothing like a suit, suit".

He's grateful that Mr Hubbard was willing to let him translate his sketches into clothes and sees the project as a step on the path to his ambition of working overseas before returning to New Zealand to make a name for himself.

The mayor says he is happy to support the industry, particularly where young designers are concerned. This year there are plenty of them at Fashion Week, including Avery and fellow AUT students doing a graduate show for the first time.

"Tonight we see the No 8 wire replaced by the No 8 sewing thread - the inherent cleverness is the same," said the mayor, who holds that the creative industries can exploit Kiwi ingenuity and be key to Auckland's growth. "We've moved from the wool bale to this - adding value and creativity," he told the Herald.

The aim of Fashion Week is also to increase export returns, up from a total apparel industry figure to June 2005 of $317 million. High fashion is a minority of this, but it is seen as the leader into new markets.

In the name of this aim, we are in for a week of outlandish stunts and name-dropping and jaw-dropping appearances, but for real fashion audiences the clothes come first.

The week is a juggling act of appointments, with buyers checking out the exhibition hall and visiting off-site workrooms to size up ranges. This year they include representatives from department store giant Myer, which sells truckloads of Kiwi fashion from its "Australian" designer floor.

Niche market boutiques are also courted, as New Zealand will never have the infrastructure to mass produce for global consumption. Among the coolest to come this year is London's Koh Samui.

There has also been a particular focus on attracting Asian interest, both from buyers and the press, in the hope that good reports in the likes of Japanese Vogue will lead to sales further down the track.

That's where the VIP overseas guests come in too, people you may not have heard of, but they're here to generate good word-of-mouth in the right circles.

Pick the right guest and they'll produce good copy and excite interest from others in coming here next year; get it wrong and chances are there will be the hangover of a big hotel bill at the Hilton.

This year the chosen ones are Cameron Silver, stylist to the stars in Los Angeles whose claim to fame is being named by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in fashion and mantilla-wearing Diane Pernet, a Paris-based fashion critic and video journalist.

She's got the all-in-black gothic-meets-Victorian look that showed on runways for the northern hemisphere winter collections.

We're bound to be influenced by those styles, but the interesting thing to see is who breaks the mould and offers an individual take that more than one person would want to wear.

For a strictly seasonal business, fashion plays a long game - a week of hype and then the wait for orders.