WOW winners
The 2024 World of WearableArt™ (WOW) supreme award went to designer Grace DuVal from the United States for her garment, Curves Ahead.
It was her sixth time entering WOW, and her sixth award win, although the first time she has received the supreme award. The runner-up was He art, by Xuancheng Liu & Jingyi Lin, China.
Curves Ahead was inspired by the strength and resilience of the rebuild efforts following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, conceptualised while its designer was on a road trip around New Zealand. She was inspired by the juxtaposition between the natural landscape of Aotearoa and the neon signage and garb of the road crews.
The domineering and curvaceous figure is sculpturally hand-draped out of vinyl reflective construction signs, then topped with a striking spiked crown of plastic cones and fibreglass poles. The Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer Award was won by New Zealander Katherine Bertram with her garment Termite Cathedral. Fellow Kiwi Rebecca Bond’s Changing Perceptions entry won the Transformation Innovation Award.
Other New Zealand winners were:
SECTION AWARDS:
Aotearoa: Kārearea, Kayla Christensen
Geometric Abstraction: Walkin’ Wardrobe, Laurel Judd
SPECIAL AWARDS
Sustainability: Sgàthach the Singed, Fifi Colston
Fisher Funds New Zealand Design: The Red Thread, Ian Bernhard
Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer: Termite Cathedral, Katherine Bertram
