It’ll be the 12^th year of the massive New Zealand fashion event which celebrates Dunedin’s creativity, identity and cutting-edge style. The iD Dunedin Fashion Week is a top event on the international fashion calendar, showcasing both New Zealand and international designers. Having been moved from March to April, the 2011 dates are slightly later than usual but it’s all for a good reason. March is already jam-packed with other fashion shows such as the Milan, London and Paris Fashion Weeks. Moving the iD Dunedin Fashion Week to April means that even more international judges and guest designers will be able to attend. Brown Bear has heard top names of the fashion industry mentioned, but at the moment everything is still top secret. But I can say this much: after attending an exclusive launch event yesterday I saw a sneak preview of upcoming spring and summer fashion by top Dunedin retailers and designers such as Charmaine Reveley, Waughs, DADA and Carlson, and I can promise you that the 2011 iD Dunedin Fashion Show will go off with a bang.

Check out the photos of the fashion launch and keep checking the Brown Bear website for updates on detailed programmes and exclusive iD Dunedin Fashion Week events!

iD Dunedin Fashion Week: 5 – 10 April 2011

The long awaited debut album Please Turn Me Into The Snat is an introduction for the uninitiated to the amazing world of Connan Mockasin, and a renewed pleasure for established followers – introducing characters from cats with larger-than-life personalities and unicorns in uniform, to alter egos such as Don Dicaprio. The album was written and recorded over 18 months in East Sussex, UK and an abandoned haunted house in Wellington.

Mar 20, from 8 pm, Chicks Hotel, 2 Mount St, Port Chalmers. Book it: www.eventfinder.co.nz & Cosmic Corner, $23.50.

You can get your exclusively designed bow tie pin in WORLD stores and ASB branches nationwide for a $2.00 donation during bow tie week, or you can get a fabric bow tie pin from MDA collectors and selected stores.

The raw silk bow tie (named ‘WORLD of difference’) in the distinctive blue and yellow of the Muscular Dystrophy Association will be available in WORLD stores nationwide during February and will retail for $90RRP with $10 of every purchase being donated to MDA. I say grrrreat!

“We’re so excited to be able to play our own unique part in supporting this great cause. In creating this special bowtie WORLD hopes to draw more attention to the valuable work the MDA does,” says Francis Hooper, WORLD designer.

Muscular Dystrophy Association Managing Director, Chris Higgins, told me “We use the bow tie symbol to represent the many difficulties people with a neuromuscular conditions face each day. It has been wonderful to have our Patron Judy Bailey front the campaign and to partner with WORLD for the 2010 Bow Tie Campaign.”

They also tell me that muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular conditions are unpredictable, incurable and disabling, and can affect anybody, at any age. Usually they are genetic and sometimes occur more than once in a family, although often there is no family history.

Join me and Mother Bear in donning a ‘WORLD of difference’ MDA bow tie – not only will you look sharp, you’ll be helping a very worthy cause!

Read more at www.mda.org.nz

Once I’m replete, though, I won’t have to go home – I can relax in my deckchair and watch some of the free street entertainment – or even stay for dinner, and to enjoy the music at the Meridian Strawberry Jam!

Waimate Strawberry Fare – Seddon Square and Boland Park, Waimate, December 12 from 10:30 am

The rival cities of Wellington and Dunedin were announced as the country’s first fair trade cities by the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand (FTAANZ) earlier this month.

Dunedin was awarded a giant certificate by the New Zealand Fair Trade Association in a special ceremony in the city centre on Monday, celebrating the city’s new status as a certified Fair Trade city. Wellington was simultaneously awarded status with Dunedin by FTAANZ, but as Mayor Peter Chin said after receiving the award: “In my mind, Dunedin was first…they [Wellington] were passed after we knew Dunedin had complied with all the requirements.” Wellington shouldn’t be miffed, though – it’s still the first Fair Trade capital in the world!

When cities get behind a movement, great things can happen! Dunedin has 10 Fair Trade schools, more than any other region of New Zealand, and the business community has really listened to the message, with many of my favourite coffee spots taking up the challenge! Lots of businesses have opted for Fair Trade as well, while Tomahawk School is going through a process to win the Guinness World Record for the smallest Fair Trade school.

Why has Dunedin embraced Fair Trade so enthusiastically? Well, it might be the large student population, or it could be that Dunedin, with its strong roots in Scotland and the Presbyterian Church, just has more fair people! Whatever it is, congratulations, Dunedin…you’re standing up for what you believe in!