As October is Breast Cancer Month this week’s fabulous wearable takes the form a bizarre but very thoughtful bra – its Lynn Christiansen’s The Abbey of St Brassiere.

The witty and outrageous Bizarre Bra™ section has been a firm favourite with WOW^® entrants and audiences since it was established in 1995.  Since then, more than 400 Bizarre Bras™ have shimmied across the WearableArt™ stage. Humour – rather than comfort – is firmly at the heart of the section. Revelling in visual puns, from boulder holders to getting busted, designers have fashioned bras from everything from taxidermy animals to candelabras.

Inspired by the world’s great cathedrals, Lynn Christiansen took a reverential approach for her 2012 Bizarre Bra™. She created a place of worship for the breast,  complete with its very own saint – St Brassiere. As such it seems a fitting piece with which to mark Breast Cancer awareness month.

WOW’s^® celebration of the female breast has seen the organisation partner with the Breast Cancer Research Trust in fundraising activities. To date WOW® has raised more than $100,000 towards helping the Trust reach their goal of finding a cure for breast cancer by 2018.

If you would like to contribute a little something to the Trust’s goal, you could purchase a copy of  WOW’s^® new book on Bizarre Bras (which is available of course from the Te Papa Store).  20% of the proceeds of the sale of the book will go to the Breast Cancer Research Trust.

Alternatively, check out the Breast Cancer Foundation’s  website.  Their Take Action page offers plenty of ideas on how you, your friends, family or work place can contribute to the cause. At Te Papa, we are building up to a bake-off and sale.

‘Wearable of the Week’ is posted in conjunction with The WOW Factor: 25 Years in the Making, which is on display at Te Papa until 17 August 2014. For more on the World of WearableArt™ visit WOW® online.