A Darker Eden
Presented by the New Zealand Fashion Museum and the Otago Polytechnic School of Design, and hosted by Waterfront Auckland, the exhibition A Darker Eden: Fashion from Dunedin examines and celebrates the creative context unique to Dunedin.
We all understand that the way we dress is more than a matter of personal taste, it tells a bigger story about our culture and society. In 2011 the New Zealand Fashion Museum tracked the development of the unique relationship that exists between the colour black and New Zealandness in an exhibition and book titled Black: The history of black in fashion, society and culture in New Zealand. We saw that clothes provide a window through which we can view ourselves, our history and our identity. If this can be true on a national level it follows that it could equally be so on a regional level. Can we find evidence of a distinctive Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin identity and where is that distinction located? What are the markers and salient features that allow us to recognise it? While climate is a natural determinant of variation in style are there other qualities that are are specific to a particular location such as architecture, cultural values and history that contribute to the evolution of a unique local fashion?
All of the designers in this exhibition have experienced life under the influence of Dunedin’s history and also bring their personal history to their practice.
Dunedin's three most established designers represented here, have created their own distinctive handwriting, developing a personal creative identity, which is clearly mapped onto their location. The graduate group of designers from the Otago Polytechnic who have been included in this exhibition have various origins and places of residence and are brought together to help the audience consider whether their work too reveals characteristics that identify them as emerging from that Darker Eden, Dunedin.
The iD Dunedin Fashion show was established in 1999 to celebrate and promote Dunedin’s fashion creativity. Featuring selected Dunedin designers and graduates from the Otago Polytechnic Fashion Design degree programme, the runway show at the Dunedin Railway Station brings national and international designers to Dunedin to participate and its inclusion in this exhibition completes the picture of New Zealand's romantic, dark, neo Gothic southern city.
