In the lead-up to the 2017 General Election, we have linked each of these issues to objects from the collection, or education programmes, run by Te Papa. In this post, Senior Curator History Claire Regnault writes about Housing.Read more
Its that time of year again – the colourful World of WearableArt™ has quite literally blown into town this week, ready to paint the town red! Hopefully by the time the competing designers fly in from around the world to see their garments take the stage, today’s gale force winds will have died down to a gentle,Read more
This week we are changing over a number of garments in The WOW Factor, an exhibition celebrating the wonderful, creative and inventive World of WearableArt™. The exhibition itself has been extended to 2 November 2014 so that this year’s show attendees can also enjoy seeing a number of garments up closeRead more
This week’s wearable is for all those city slickers who have made their way to work today through the mist and the rain with their umbrellas intact! Fashion tutor Deborah Shepherd won the World of WearableArt™ Sustainability Award with this unique take on the sharp city suit, which features hundredsRead more
This week’s wearable is by Sally Spackman, a recent graduate from Massey University’s fashion design degree. Made from hundreds, if not thousands of coiled pine needles, the spiralled forms that make up Powelliphanta Pine are inspired by the beautiful shells of New Zealand’s powelliphanta snails – the ‘giants of theRead more
This week’s wearable continues on last week’s theme of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and hopefully encourages you all to bee supportive! Bee Supporters is the clever handi-work of Andi Regan,who seeks to transform and find beauty in the discarded and everyday. ‘The whole No 8 wire philosophy inspires me. IRead more
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 inRead more
‘There is a whole world inside me. I often dream of something deep and colourful which moves and which is very mysterious. There are many corners, strange places, folds and holes. I have an enormous need to express that world.’ Marjolein Dallinga I love the above quote from Marjolein Dallinga.Read more
One of the best things about working in the cultural sector is getting to meet amazing people. Dame Suzie Moncrieff, the founder of the World of WearableArt™, is just one of those people – gutsy, visionary and determind. This week we get to share her. On Saturday 21 September fromRead more
‘Just because people don’t walk down the street in amazingly unique, totally dysfunctional uncomfortable clothing doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done’. The above quote is from the wonderfully inventive Donna Demente Ogilvy who made this week’s ‘Wearable’, the fabulous Pallas Athene. Influenced by a mix of classical mythology, mysticism andRead more
Models in full war paint and extravagant hairstyles strutted their stuff through clouds of dry ice in time to pulsating music… showing different garments including masks, hats and sunglasses, as well as more orthodox attire. Peter Gibbs, The New Zealand Listener The above quote comes from a review ofRead more
On 24 August, 2013 The WOW Factor, which celebrates 25 years of the WearableArt™ Awards, opened to the public. The exhibition features over 25 fantastic garments from the award’s history, and for the next 25 weeks I am going to endeavour to post a ‘Wearable of the Week’. ‘The Wearables’Read more
Thirty years ago today, on 11 July 1983, American television host Bob Barker announced to the world that ‘Miss New Zealand, Miss Lorraine Downes, is now Miss Universe 1983’. It was a historic moment for the competition organisers, for New Zealand and for the 19 year old model with the winningRead more
