Recognised as a key launch pad for aspiring fashion designers, the Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador Awards are open to final year students, fresh graduates and designers new to the fashion market. This year's winner will be announced at a glittering catwalk show on 13 September, and will receive a return trip to London Fashion Week, with NZ$3000 spending money and the chance to meet with influential leaders from London's vibrant fashion industry.

Image: Shirt/dress by Sherie Muys, Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador 2006. Photograph by Stephen Tilley.Recognised as a key launch pad for aspiring fashion designers, the Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador Awards are open to final year students, fresh graduates and designers new to the fashion market. This year's winner will be announced at a glittering catwalk show on 13 September, and will receive a return trip to London Fashion Week, with NZ$3000 spending money and the chance to meet with influential leaders from London's vibrant fashion industry.

Image: Shirt/dress by Sherie Muys, Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador 2006. Photograph by Stephen Tilley.Auckland's ASB Tennis Centre, with its striking geodesic dome, is the ambitious new venue for the 7th annual Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador Awards Show. Dapper media personality Wallace Chapman will be compering the catwalk action, and the party will continue under the stars with distinguished DJ Roger Perry.

The winner will be announced after a spectacular catwalk presentation under the Tennis Centre dome, featuring 30 top models walking in the collections of the top 8 finalists, as selected by a judging panel of fashion experts.

"It's one of the very best opportunities for new fashion talent to be discovered," says fashion journalist and judge, Stacy Gregg. "A prize that rewards the winning designer by giving them international experience is a fantastic idea. New Zealand fashion is great, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. We have to connect to the rest of the world."

The judging panel

The Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador Awards is a truly national competition, with this year's garments being delivered by entrants from as far afield as Ponsonby and Gore.

Judging has commenced and the top eight finalists, whose mini-collections will be shown on the Deutz catwalk, are to be announced early next week. Selected finalists will then attend personal interviews with the judging panel, before the Award winner and top placings are deliberated.

This year's judging panel includes:

Stacy Gregg - Editor, RunwayReporter.com
Kate Sylvester - Fashion Designer, Kate Sylvester
Petra Bagust - Television Presenter
Cybele Wiren - Fashion Designer, Cybele
Katie Newton - Fashion and Beauty Editor, Sunday Star-Times

"We're looking for young talent capable of creating clothes that have impact on the runway without forsaking wearability," says Gregg. "That's the hard balance you need to achieve."

"I was amazed at the standard of entries when I judged last year. Sherie Muys won that year, but there were several other designers who also caught my eye in the judging, and since then I've made a point of following their careers."

The prize package

"Winning has had a significant impact on my fashion career, spurring me on to launch my own personal label earlier than I had ever anticipated," says 2006 Ambassador Award winner Sherie Muys. "Not to mention the amazing wealth of industry contacts I have gained, both locally and internationally. This really has been a head start that I could only have dreamed of."

In addition to the Deutz Fashion Design Ambassador Awards presentation, the finalists' collections will be modelled in a special catwalk showcase at Air New Zealand Fashion Week on September 20. These same garments will also be on display at The New Dowse in Lower Hutt throughout October, as part of Flash! - The Deutz International Fashion Season.

23/8/07