A minute's silence was held on the opening night of New Zealand Fashion Week to remember a volunteer killed in a car crash in Waikato days before the event.

Felicity Paige Wren, 20, was killed when the car she was a front seat passenger in hit the back of a truck's trailer on Friday on State Highway 27, just south of Morrinsville, police say.

The Dunedin woman, who was studying in Wellington, was travelling south with a friend at the time of the crash.

The truck, which was travelling in the same direction, had slowed as it approached a school bus turning off SH27.

The car's driver suffered minor injuries.

The New Zealand Herald reports that Ms Wren was due to work as a volunteer dressing models at New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland which began on Monday.