New Zealand takes Supreme Award at the 2014 WOW Awards Show

New Zealand takes Supreme Award at the 2014 WOW Awards Show

For the second year in a row a New Zealand Designer has taken out the top prize at the World of WearableArt Awards Show. Hawkes Bay-based Kate MacKenzie walked away the 2014 Brancott Estate Supreme WOW® Award at tonight’s 26th show, taking home $30,000 in prizes.

The two-piece entry, called ‘Poly Nation,’ was designed by MacKenzie who is an artist and marketing supervisor and made using leather and cardboard suitcases. The garment was inspired by the idea that if suitcases could talk they would carry stories of travel, culture and integration. It symbolizes the people who are drawn to New Zealand with suitcases in hand in which they carry their new ideas and beliefs like new seeds, ready to grow, integrate and cross pollinate.

Dame Suzie Moncrieff says that this year’s Supreme WOW® Award Winner has a clear artistic integrity.

“New Zealand is a nation that has developed a strong identity based on the cultural influences brought by the people who migrated to its shores, and who continue to arrive today. This garment clearly symbolizes the baggage they bring with them in terms of culture, belief systems and ideas.”

The Runner Up to the Brancott Estate Supreme Award hails from San Francisco in the USA.

Lynn Christiansen has entered WOW seven times taking out a number of awards including the 2013 International Americas Award. Her entry this year, Gothic Habit, was also awarded first prize in the Open Section.

Made from laser-etched felt and wood this garment was constructed with more than 2300 individually cut pieces that were painstakingly assembled to create an astonishing sculpture of a gothic cathedral.

Christiansen’s inspiration for the garment was drawn from the idea that entering a religious building provides a spiritual experience in itself, the rising arches, heavy stone and raw beauty are stunning.

Christiansen said, “Ever since I discovered WOW in 2007 I try to enter every year. There is nothing else in the world that offers the opportunity to showcase wearable art and to interact with other wearable art
designers.”

The guest judges sculptor, Jeff Thomson and fashioned designer, Vicky Taylor joined the Founder of WOW® Dame Suzie Moncrieff, on the panel. The decision-making was unanimous and every garment that had been selected to compete on stage and be modelled in the WOW® show, were of an equally high calibre.

ENDS

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