Designers will show at invite-only event in Paris

Suzan Kostanich (left) and Leilani Rickard are designing a collection to be shown at a fashion show in Paris. Photo / Stephen Parker

A passion for originality has seen two local women asked to showcase their designs at a prestigious invite-only fashion show in Paris.

Leilani Rickard and Suzan Kostanich have been asked to show at the J Autumn Fashion Show which will see 15 of the duo's looks modelled on a glass barge down the river Seine.

Mrs Rickard is known for her unique designs, having participated in Wearable Arts and shown at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2013, but said it was time to "go global".

The duo will leave for Paris on October 22, providing they can raise the funds.

"We have had to pay 15,000 pounds (about $35,000) to get the collection over there, now we need to get ourselves over," Ms Kostanich said.

The J Fashion Shows always gets a lot of media attention.

"It is covered in Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Tattler, and it's on channels like the BBC and CNN."

The designs, which are created by Ms Kostanich, using prints designed by Mrs Rickard, take Maori and New Zealand-inspired designs away from the stereotypes, they said.

Mrs Rickard said science played a large role in her discovering the print which would define her collection.

After viewing microscopic images of the cellular walls of harakeke (flax), that had been taken at Crown Research Institute Scion, she decided to use them in her collection.

Ms Kostanich got involved after she saw the designs at a fashion show at Rotorua Library in 2013, and has been the head of production ever since, she said.

"When something is meant to be it just happens," she said.

- If you want to sponsor Leilani Rickard and Suzan Kostanich, email info@iwicreations.com