The World of Wearable Art Show, Wellington

by Martina Mc Auley
(Amsterdam)

I had been traveling around the South Island for two and a half weeks, in September and October 2009 and got talking to a few people about the World of Wearable Art Show. I tried to get a ticket when I was in Nelson but it looked like it was sold out.

I arrived in Wellington anyway, on Wednesday and went to the TSB Arena where the show was on and decided to try and see if they had tickets. If you don't try, you won't get!

I couldn't believe it when they said they had 3 standard tickets left for the show on Thursday. So straight away, I bought a ticket.

I'm sure the show was sold out by the time Thursday evening came. And I'm not surprised. It was absolutely amazing. I have never, ever seen anything like it. The combination of the music, choreography, outfits and dance made it a stunning show. I was totally gobsmacked and enthralled by it.

The WOW Art competition is a platform for artists and designers to design pieces of art for the different categories of the competition but the art all has to be wearable, because models have to be able to wear it at the show. And my God, were they works of art!

The outfits can be made of wood, plastic, photo paper, china, polystyrene, foam, felt,....... anything, you name it! But I was amazed by the designs. Some of them were so intricate and detailed and some of them were so "off the wall", that you'd never believe anyone could ever dream up such a thing.

There are about 8 categories in the competition. And with each entrant, my jaw just dropped lower and lower. I was totally astounded by what they came up with.


My favourite category was the "Illumination Illusion Section". All the lights are turned off and these ultra violet lights come on.

The first thing we saw, were these multicoloured flame shaped objects, floating around in the darkness. And with the music, it looked like these floating flames were blowing around in the wind. It made my heart soar to see it. After a couple of minutes, all these leaves of flame grouped together, to form the shape of a butterfly. It was just wonderful.

There was also a part of the show, where there was a woman draped in black and she must have been 5 metres tall. She had a crescent moon on her head, which was lit up and she was lifted up to the ceiling and stayed there. The stage was also surrounded by black flowing drapes suspended from the ceiling. The woman started singing opera and the first group of entrants came in and did their modelling.

The designs and colours and shapes of all of them caught my eye so much, that I'd nearly miss the next entrant coming up, I was so glued to the one before! It was such a professional, theatrical, wonderful fashion show, I'll never forget it.

The show is on this year 2010, from 23rd September to 3rd October, in Wellington. If you get the chance to go, GO! It's an amazing, unforgettable show.

You're not allowed to take photos or video the show while you're there, so I don't have any photos to show you, but check their website and you'll get a good idea of what to expect: www.worldofwearableart.com

For more info on my visit to Wellington and New Zealand check my website:http://tinyurl.com/yfsfrc7