WOW, it’s wearing well
The World of Wearable Art show is celebrating 30 years, rising from humble Nelson beginnings to becoming Wellington’s biggest annual creative event. Founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff tells Sarah Catherall about the pivotal moments in its history.
The World of WearableArt show is celebrating 30 years. Founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff tells Sarah Catherall about the pivotal moments in its history.
Since 1987, the World of WearableArt (WOW) show has invited designers to enter imaginative and increasingly high-tech garments in a competition that doubles as highly choreographed theatre. It has become New Zealand’s answer to Cirque du Soleil, attracting 60,000 punters annually and offering $170,000 in prizes. As Dame Suzie Moncrieff and her team prepare for a 30th season, she looks back at the turning points in the event’s development.
The shift from rural Nelson to the city’s Trafalgar Centre:
That was the moment when I knew we had something special. In 1987, I had started an annual design competition to publicise the William Higgins Gallery. When it went from the historic cottage to town in 1990, we had a queue of people half a kilometre down the road waiting to get in. I was running around checking that we had enough change for the tickets. In those early days, I had no idea what was going to work. In the first year at the Trafalgar Centre, we had a full house of 2000 one night; there was a huge cross section of people watching it. We had 72 garments, including one called Bacon Bitties – a staggering garment that had a flowing veil made of frost cloth and a breastplate made of bacon slices encased in resin. It was very much Nelson arts-and-crafts people who entered. We also had the first big set made especially for that show – a volcanic theme, with lights and a big dance troupe.
Mortgaging her cottage to keep WOW going:
I didn’t do the show in 1989 because I was going through a divorce. After that, I was a single mother on the DPB, raising my daughter, Emma. In those early days, we had no money and could only just cover our costs with the tickets. My father always told me, “Never owe anyone any money,’’ but there was one year where I had to borrow to keep the show going. The only way I could do that was to remortgage our little cottage. Fortunately, I could pay it back. In 1992, I couldn’t find enough sponsorship to run the Wearable Arts Awards – as they were called then – so we had another year off.
Opening the WOW museum in Nelson:
As we got more and more entries, we were looking for somewhere to store and showcase them. Until then, we were storing garments everywhere from disused psychiatric hospitals to apple sheds. [Nelson seafood magnate] Peter Talley and his wife Judy were so generous in funding a museum to house our collection. We opened the national WOW museum in Nelson in 2001 and the garments are shown near Peter’s classic car collection. We have visitors from around the world.
“We have entries from 44 countries this year – from high-street designers to boat builders.”
The shift from Nelson to Wellington:
In 2005, we made the decision to shift to Wellington; I don’t think WOW would be here today if we had not made