World of WearableArt 2017 designs wow in Wellington awards show
• 22 September 2017
International designers feature in the 20 top awards in the 2017 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards in Wellington, New
Zealand.
Winners are celebrating tonight as the awards for the 2017 World of WearableArt (WOW) are announced, honouring the
designers behind what must be the world's quirkiest design competition.
International designers from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and
USA, and New Zealand are among the winners in the WOW awards just announced at the glittering opening show in
Wellington, New Zealand.
From a field of 104 finalist garments, Indonesian accessories designer Rinaldy Yunardi will take home the Supreme WOW
Award. First time entrant, Yunardi entered two garments both of which won their respective section awards. Jakarta-based
Yunardi, who has been designing millinery and accessories for 20 years, takes home a total of NZ$42,000 in prize money
for his two entries:
• Encapsulate - Supreme Award winner / Open section winner
• Cosmos - Avant-garde section winner
Yunardi says that both his entries were inspired by the universe being a well-ordered whole, encapsulating a system of
thought, reasons and emotions. Encapuslate (Supreme Award and Open section winner) is a particularly striking design of
a capsule in two halves and made of plastic ropes and LEDs. Cosmos (Avant-garde section winner) is a full-body black and
silver garment with elaborate head-dress made of mesh crystals, plastic rope and metal.
The judges were particularly impressed by Yunardi's design aesthetic, for its exceptional strength in simplicity of
design and uniqueness of form, WOW founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff said.
The runner-up to the WOW Supreme Award is Grace DuVal of Chicago, USA, who also won the Sustainability Award. Made of
bicycle inner tubes and spokes, DuVal says "Refuse refuge is a warrior woman, an alien human building her future from
the rubble of the earth's past." DuVal chose tyre tubes because they are both resiliant and mouldable, and there is a
great surplus of them. "Every tube was pulled from the trash of bicycle shops around Chicago. These materials that
refuse to compose will be all that we have left in the future," she says.
The 2017 show features 104 finalist garments by 122 designers from 14 countries around the world. The finalist garments
will be showcased in the WOW Awards Show in Wellington which continues until 8 October 2017.
WOW is the world’s leading wearable art design competition, with prizes including the Supreme Award (NZD$30,000), an
artist residency at Cirque du Soleil (Montreal) and an internship with Weta Workshop (Wellington). WOW also produces
on-going exhibitions within New Zealand along with a very successful international touring exhibition programme.
Now in its 29th year, WOW’s combination of an international design competition inside a spectacular stage production is
New Zealand’s single largest annual theatrical production and a must-see event for close to 60,000 people every year.
WOW Chief Executive Gisella Carr says “WOW’s international reach is becoming more and more evident, something we’ve
worked hard to achieve, while at the same time retaining its unique New Zealand heart.”
Each year, WOW attracts an exciting number and range of designers due to the high awareness of the WOW brand, designers’
own networks, and WOW’s work with tertiary institutions around the globe. Many international designers take part in
WOW’s Designer Programme in Wellington, further strengthening WOW’s international network.
The competition encourages and celebrates a huge diversity in designers “from those with professional training and
careers, to those who start with a gem of an idea, and have the courage, tenacity and sheer determination to create
something extraordinary outside of their own field,” Carr said.
“On stage, we see the work of international fashion designers, artists from the creative and industrial sectors,
alongside students and first-time enthusiasts. This incredible cross-section of entrants is not only reflected in how
the garments look, but also in their materials and construction, with every year bringing explorations into new
techniques.”
The 104 finalist garments competed for awards in six sections: three recurrent sections – Aotearoa New Zealand, Open and
Avant-Garde; and three sections with design briefs specific to 2017 – Red, Illumination Illusion: Float, Fly, Flow, and
Weta Workshop Costume & Film: Science Fiction.
The competition was judged in three stages including on design, on stage and in motion. 2017 judges included competition
founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff, fashion designer and artist Kerrie Hughes, artist Michel Tuffery, Sir Richard Taylor from
Weta Workshop, Valérie Desjardins from Cirque du Soleil and Teneille Ferguson of David Jones.
The finalists will be seen in performance by the public at the WOW Awards Show from 21 September to 8 October 2017
before they move to the National WOW Museum in Nelson for an exhibition, opening in December 2017.
In all 37 awards went to 36 designers from nine countries.
2017 WOW Awards Section Winners
•Aotearoa New Zealand: Human Nature by Saar Snoek (Sellingen, Netherlands)
•Open: Encapsulate by Rinaldy Yunardi (Jakarta, Indonesia)
•Avant Garde: Cosmos by Rinaldy Yunardi (Jakarta, Indonesia)
•Red: Cube by Adam MacAlavey (London, UK)
•Illumination Illusion: Float, Fly, Flow - The Spirit of Waitomo by Maria Tsopanaki & Dimitri Mavinis (London, UK)
•Weta Workshop Costume & Film: Science Fiction - The Organ Farmer by Fifi Colston (Wellington, New Zealand)
About the World of WearableArt (WOW)
The spectacular World of WearableArt (WOW) is one of New Zealand’s cultural success stories. Created by Dame Suzie
Moncrieff in 1987, WOW is alive 12 months of the year, with the annual international WearableArt design competition and
show in Wellington, year-round exhibitions at the National WOW Museum in Nelson, and a travelling international
exhibition.
At the core of WOW is an annual International Design Competition that each year attracts entries from more than 40
countries. The rules of competition mean that anything that is wearable can find a place on stage, as long as it is
original, innovative and well-made. This means that WOW attracts some of the most creative people from around the world,
working at the cutting edge of fashion, art, design, costume and theatre. WOW is a license to play, explore and
experiment with resources and processes, with entrants using unexpected materials to create highly sophisticated
garments incorporating everything from artisan craftsmanship to futuristic fabrication technologies.
Every September and October, WOW showcases the best of the competition with the WOW Awards Show, which takes over New
Zealand’s vibrant capital city of Wellington in an explosion of creativity and fun. The three-week season of shows is
completely different every year. In 2017, there will be 16 shows between 21 September and 8 October, with around 60,000
attendees.
National WOW Museum and Touring Exhibitions
Open year round, the National WOW Museum in Nelson attracts more than 40,000 annual visitors. The Museum houses two
collections representing innovation in design; the WOW Galleries and the Nelson Classic Car Collection.
Each year, the competition finalists are exhibited at the National WOW Museum following their appearance on stage at the
Wellington show, where visitors can see the entries up close, to truly appreciate their construction and detailing.
The Nelson Classic Car Collection is a unique collection of more than 130 veteran, vintage and classic cars,
representing more than 100 years of motoring. This eclectic, world-class private collection is one of Australasia’s
largest, celebrating the art of motoring, and reflecting changing times, trends, technology and events.
On the road since 2015, WOW’s International Travelling Exhibition showcases 32 award-winning garments curated to present
the best of WOW’s creativity to the world. The international WOW exhibition is the perfect conduit for introducing WOW
to an international audience. With support from the New Zealand Government, the current travelling exhibition has
impressed almost 700,000 visitors in Australia, and three US museums – Bishop Museum Hawaii, MoPOP in Seattle and
Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.