NEW ZEALAND designer Annah Stretton has launched a competition to find a same-sex female couple to get married on the catwalk. New Zealand recently passed a law to allow same-sex couples to marry from August 19, but Stretton has opened her competition to Australians - to encourage the neighbouring country to follow suit.

    Photo credit- gorunway
The Come on Oz, Say I Do contest is open for applications and will include return flights to New Zealand for the lucky couple, as well as bespoke bridal gowns designed by Stretton, accommodation and a wedding reception for up to 250 guests. The entire bridal party will also be exclusively dressed by the designer and invited to take part in the show. The brides will say their vows on the catwalk during New Zealand Fashion Week on September 7, in front of a crowd of 1,000 people.
"It will not only celebrate the fact that from August 19 same-sex partners will be able to legally marry in New Zealand, but will also encourage our Pacific neighbours to follow our lead and legalise gay marriage," said Stretton. "This is a cause that I am incredibly passionate about. I have always been proud to call myself a New Zealander and even more so now that we do not discriminate against those who want to be married based on their gender. 

Because they cannot yet get married in their own country, I'm inviting our Aussie neighbours to jump the ditch and, using the platform I have been given at New Zealand Fashion Week, be married for the world to see, in what is set to be a fashion show extravaganza that will be remembered for years to come."
Karl Lagerfeld also recently staged a catwalk display in support of marriage equality, featuring two brides holding hands - complete with a pageboy - in the finale of his Chanel couture show in January. The statement was ahead of an announcement by French president François-Hollande endorsing a law to allow same-sex marriage in France.