27 Extraordinary Entries From The 2023 World Of WearbaleArt Contest

Sarah Nathan, the Head of Competition, says that the event is a great place for people to make their creative dreams come true. “WOW finalists come from all corners of the globe and a broad spectrum of creative and technical disciplines. Our designer community is made up of fashion, textile, and industrial designers, jewelers, costumers, architects, engineers, sculptors, painters, crafters, gardeners, doctors, and even boat builders! All you need is a strong creative concept and a commitment to robust, quality execution.”

“To see their vision come to life on stage through world-class performance at the WOW Show is incredibly rewarding and often emotional for WOW designers. The creative team and models pour immense passion and care into understanding the garments, their inspiration, and stories," Nathan says.

"WOW was born from the idea of taking art off the wall and onto the moving body, and we see that year after year in the entries – both in terms of the visually striking and the important storytelling. We can’t wait to see what comes through for 2024."

We were curious to learn how the 2023 competition compares to previous years. Nathan shared that 2023 was a big year for garments with 110 on stage with the main reason being it was a Bizarre Bra year! "The Bizarre Bra section only happens every few years or so and it’s a huge crowd favorite. Designers love it too – as they get the opportunity to work on something on a smaller scale and there’s always the opportunity for an excellent bra-pun. This year we had Boobie Trap, Potatoes Pota-ta’s, Prop Em’ Up amongst many others. The show finished with a massive Bizarre Bra retro disco funk party and the audience lost their minds!"

We asked the head of competition, Sarah Nathan, what was the most striking aspect of the 2023 entries. "Probably this year was the global reach from which we got entries. In the end we had finalists from 23 countries in including Croatia, Lithuania, Iran, Japan, Poland, Canada, Romania, Ukraine, Vietnam and many more," she told us. "Not bad for the world’s biggest wearable art competition tucked away in little old New Zealand."

According to Nathan, designers are inspired to use their art to convey a message that is important to them. "This year there were a number of themes that came through, however, the biggest one was environmental damage through waste and fast fashion. Birth of the Babel Fish was a stunning Mother Earth figure who was made entirely from Ghost Nets and Ocean waste, while Waste Mountain talked about the crushing impact of fast fashion on 3rd world countries and manifested as a huge pile of old clothes that moved around the stage and made the audience gasp as six human harms reached through the layers."