There's little question that the World of WearableArts (WOW) holds a place as one of Aotearoa's biggest annual creative events, but its true global nature was on show in the 2024 Awards.

Not just something that gets the creative juices flowing for New Zealand designers, there was a wave of winners from nine countries at the packed Awards night at Wellington's TSB Arena on Friday night (27 September). 

New Zealand shares the best-represented country among the awards - providing 6 different winners - with the same amount heading back to the United States, including the top prize. 

But Supreme Winner Grace DuVal can thank time spent in Aotearoa for her headline-stealing garment, Curves Ahead. 

Nothing says you've driven on New Zealand roads quite like orange road cones and high vis - something that DuVal experienced when on a trip on our shores when competing in the 2017 WOW awards. The garment is inspired by the strength and resilience of the rebuild efforts following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

DuVal was struck with the juxtaposition between the natural landscape of Aotearoa and the neon signage and garb of New Zealand road crews. “Curves Ahead promises a colourful future beyond devastation and leads the charge to rebuild what once was and what is yet to be,” she says.

The curvaceous figure is sculpturally hand-draped out of vinyl reflective construction signs, then topped with a striking spiked crown of plastic cones and fibreglass poles. It is held together with custom-modelled 3D printed components. Plastic mesh, barrier fencing emanates from the skirt to create a ruffle “of celebration”, explains DuVal.

That 2017 trip to New Zealand saw the American finish runner-up to the Supreme WOW Award, but this time she's gone one better. Curves Ahead's success in the Avant-Garde section as well as the top prize takes DuVal's total award wins to six, in her sixth time entering the competition. 

The judging panel of WOW Founder and Resident Judge Dame Suzie Moncrieff, Pōneke designer James Dobson AKA Jimmy and Wētā Workshop duo Sir Richard Taylor and Gino Acevedo commented, “Curves Ahead is visually electrifying, vividly beautiful and a cohesive, compelling concept. It commands your attention, and up close you observe the phenomenal technical skill involved in bringing it to being.”

DeVal and Runner-Up - He art by Chinese pair Xuancheng Liu & Jingyi Lin - shared the $185,000 prize pool with eight Special Award winners, five International Design Awards and 18 Section Awards placings.

New Zealand designers won two of the six sectional awards, with Kayla Christensen's Kārearea triumphant in the Aotearoa section and Laurel Judd claiming the Geometric Abstraction division for Walkin' Wardrobe.

The Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer Award was won by New Zealander Katherine Bertram with her garment Termite Cathedral, while countrywoman Rebecca Bond’s Changing Perceptions, took away the Transformation Innovation Award.

WOW veteran and 2022 Runner-Up Fifi Colston added to her glittering CV with the Sustainability Award for Sgàthach the Singed, while the New Zealand Design Award was claimed by Ian Bernhard's The Red Thread.

There's still one more to dish out - with People’s Choice Award is open for audiences to vote throughout the season and will be announced mid-October.

WOW Head of Competition Sarah Nathan praised the quality of construction and concept on display.

“The unbridled imagination of designers who breathe garments to life with exacting skill and ingenuity never fails to inspire us.

“Finalist garments in the 2024 WOW Competition are not only a feast for the eyes but each come with fascinating narrative and inspiration. Love was an overwhelming theme this year - love for whānau, love for the planet, aroha for Aotearoa, love for diversity and acceptance, aroha for tīpuna and even for love lost.”

The spectacular 2024 WOW Show: Dream Awake runs until 13 October at Wellington’s TSB Arena, giving several weeks for New Zealanders to be blown away by these visual delights in person.

2024 World of WearableArt Award Winners

Supreme WOW Award

Winner - Curves Ahead, Grace DuVal, United States

Runner-Up - He art, Xuancheng Liu & Jingyi Lin, China

Section winners

Aotearoa - Kārearea, Kayla Christensen, New Zealand

Open - He art, Xuancheng Liu and Jingyi Lin, China

Avant-garde - Curves Ahead, Grace DuVal, United States

Crazy Curiosities of the Creature Carnival - GiGi the Wyrm of Spinelesque, Sean Purucker & Tony Rivas, United States

Natural World - Soundscape, Ashish Dhaka, India

Geometric Abstraction - Walkin' Wardrobe, Laurel Judd, New Zealand

Special awards

First-time Entrant Award - Hold, Dai Jia Chang, Shih Chien University, Taiwan

Student Innovation Award - A Multi-faceted Perspective, Ryunosuke Arai, Bunka Fashion College, Japan

Transformation Innovation Award - Changing Perceptions, Rebecca Bond, New Zealand

Sustainability Award - Sgàthach the Singed, Fifi Colston, New Zealand

New Zealand Design Award - The Red Thread, Ian Bernhard, New Zealand

Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer Award - Termite Cathedral, Katherine Bertram, New Zealand

WOW Designer Development Award - Galina Mihaleva, United States

Dame Suzie Moncrieff Award (chosen by WOW Founder, Dame Suzie Moncrieff, as the garment that epitomises the WOW spirit) -  Murderer, Edith Mok, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong

International Design awards

UK & Europe - Ethereal Shift, Ece Özalp, Turkey

Asia - Soundscape, Ashish Dhaka, India

Americas - GiGi the Wyrm of Spinelesque, Sean Purucker & Tony Rivas, United States

Australia & Pacific - Triptych Fashionistas, Jill Perry, Australia

International Design Award – OVERALL - GiGi the Wyrm of Spinelesque, Sean Purucker & Tony Rivas, United States