By Vicky Baunke
It is a first of its kind runway to be hosted in Goroka to give local online SME owners a platform to market their products and skills.
Niyana’s Designer Runway is a cultural fusion “Promoting culture through fashion”
The event is organized by the Elite Events and Amuni foundation Incorporation and will be hosted in Goroka’s Phoenix Hotel on the 16th of September 2023.
The Niyana’s Designer Runway consists of 10 PNG designers, both male and female contestants who will be showcasing their own design outfits.
Elite Events Director Mrs Wati Tessa Alukes runs the event alongside her husband Mclay Alukes and has been organizing events in the Province especially bringing in local music artists since 2019.
The couple then saw the increasing number of online SME owners in the province and begun hosting monthly markets for online SME owners.
Mrs Alukes said after hosting the monthly SME markets for the past 7 months she noticed that there was a lot of talented tailors who sew beautiful garments.
She says most of these tailors had very creative ideas and came up with their very own designs.
The SME market consists of floriculture, arts and crafts, agriculture but Mrs Alukes wanted to really encourage the local tailoring market whose only marketing was online specifically social media pages. That’s when the idea of the runway came about to showcase the local talents and tailoring skills.
Mrs Alukes says the purpose of the event is to bring together local designers and tailoring services in Goroka instead of business houses in Goroka going outside to purchase.
The sponsors, Amuni Foundation Cain construction, Club McKenzie, Tourism and Promotion Authority, Time Travel Pacific, South Pacific Brewery and Lisa Kongi of EMK group of companies were acknowledged for coming onboard to support the event.
The wining Designer of the Niyana’s Runway will be sponsored to attend the PNG Fashion week in Port Moresby with return trip tickets, accommodations and spending money.
There will also be 3 Charity auctions on the night and proceedings from the auction will go towards the Gynaecology and Obstetrics ward at the Goroka Provincial Hospital plus 10% of the money raised during the event as a way of giving back to supporting mothers at the hospital.
