Behind the Design
Every year the WOW Awards Show invites audience-goers to escape the everyday as they walk through the doors of the TSB Arena and immerse themselves in a ‘whole other world’. They never know what they’re going to see – each year a unique set of finalist garments from that year’s Competition come to life on stage, created by designers who have set their imaginations free and pushed themselves to explore new creative possibilities.
The WOW Awards Show is the platform where these incredible works of art are showcased, building a new bespoke theatrical spectacular in Wellington each September – October.
The WOW Awards Show is a theatre of many layers with big dance performances, amazing sets, inspiring lighting and musical soundtrack. It is an emotional rollercoaster that continues to be full of surprises and showcases extraordinary art-inspired garments from all over the world.
Dame Suzie Moncrieff, WOW Founder
World of WearableArt brings people together; designers and creatives, friends, family and loved ones; from all walks of life, from all corners of the world. The 2019 creative campaign, released earlier this year, brings together four planetary homes; marrying design, innovation and creativity and focusing on what is at the heart of WOW, the incredible works of art from around the world that are entered into the Competition.
Creating a Whole New World
This campaign looks to bring to life the concept of an ‘out of this world’ experience, inviting audiences to expect the unexpected by journeying out of this world and into a breathtaking world of creativity. The world of World of WearableArt.
Made up of four planetary homes, which have been dreamed up and developed by creative agency Cato Brand Partners, each is inspired by the nuances, intricacies and craftsmanship of one of four award-winning garments. Together these homes make up one, distinctively unique, world of WOW.
 |
 |
Working with World of WearableArt provides a unique opportunity to push boundaries and embrace the unusual. It has been a highlight over the last three years for Cato Brand Partners to have the ability to explore the rich, surreal and whimsical worlds of WOW and create a campaign like no other.
Working with such an open and creative group of people who embrace the design process is a fantastic foundation for us to continue to wow, WOW.
Cato Brand Partners
Click play to watch the world come to life
Creativity Inspiring Creativity
This environment is home to 2018 award-winning garment, Foreign Bodies. A world where the microscopic becomes larger than life; a jagged landscape, a contrast of sharp and smooth wherever you look, inhabited by creatures that are truly out of this world…
Dawn Mostow & Ben Gould, based in Atlanta, United States, are the designers behinds Foreign Bodies. Ben and Dawn are a husband and wife team that met in Brooklyn, New York in 2006 while attending Pratt Institute of Art and Design. They first encountered the World of WearableArt when they visited the International Touring Exhibition on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. They knew immediately that they wanted to enter the Competition, and went on to create a garment for the 2017 World of WearableArt Awards. Their 2017 entry Labyrinth Gown won the Wearable Technology Award, acknowledging the innovative construction process whereby the garment pattern was adapted into a digital vector format before being individually laser cut and laminated.
 |
 |
 |
The following year Dawn & Ben entered again and Foreign Bodies was selected as a finalist in the Under the Microscope Section. The entry, consisting of three garments, was created out of latex rubber, EVA and wire and was inspired by the more than thirty-seven trillion cells in the human body:
First, we knew there were certain features we wanted to create for this piece. The idea of “blood cells” was an early part of the conversation, as was the inflatable chamber to create these bulbous forms. As the idea evolved, we began talking about not one cell, but a group of three. Having three personas together allowed us to establish norms and exceptions, as in there are three cells but only one has these dissimilar hard edged dodecahedrons (12-sided shapes) clinging to the surface. These dodecahedrons are made to represent the foreign bodies of these otherwise healthy vibrant blood cells.
But, it is our intention to make ambiguous whether these invaders are here to help or harm the cell with which they have bonded. As with the emerging nano tech and robotics fields, there is uncertainty in the intention and outcome of these new frontiers.
Ben Gould
Foreign Bodies was awarded the 2018 Overall International Design Award, the International Design Award: Americas and placed second in the Under the Microscope Section. The judges described Foreign Bodies as a humourous and striking performance piece with each of the three “cells” being complementary but subtly different.
Click play to watch Foreign Bodies on stage at the 2018 WOW Awards Show
WOW is honoured to work with talented creatives and extraordinary garments to develop campaigns such as this. We are constantly driven by our designers, and our friends, to be more innovative, more extensive and generally, just more of everything.
This year we invite you to journey out of this world and join us in Wellington to see the 2019 finalist garments come to life on stage at the WOW Awards Show.
26 September – 13 October | TSB Arena Wellington
