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The 2024 World of WearableArt (WOW) award winners have been announced tonight at Wellington’s TSB Arena, with the 2024 Supreme WOW Award going to designer Grace DuVal from the United States for her garment, Curves Ahead.
It is DuVal’s sixth time entering WOW, and her sixth award win, but the first time she has ever received the pinnacle Supreme WOW Award.
DuVal stands among a strong lineup of award winners, including those of the Runner-up to the Supreme WOW Award, eight Special Award winners, five International Design Awards and 18 Section Awards placings (detail below). The WOW Competition has a total prize pool worth NZD$185,000.
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WOW Head of Competition Sarah Nathan says the awards were hotly contested this year, with phenomenal quality of construction and concept across the board.
“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 class of ’24 made the judges’ task very difficult, she says.
“The unbridled imagination of designers who breathe garments to life with exacting skill and ingenuity never fails to inspire us.”
While local audiences may see a more current reference in the high vis orange and striking road cone headpiece of Curves Ahead, the garment is in fact inspired by the strength and resilience of the rebuild efforts following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.
DuVal first conceptualised Curves Ahead while on a road trip around New Zealand, just after being named the runner up to the Supreme WOW Award with her 2017 finalist garment, Refuse Refuge. She was inspired by 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 domineering and 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 who has a Masters in Fashion, Body and Garment from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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The 2024 WOW Competition judging panel comprised WOW Founder and Resident Judge Dame Suzie Moncrieff; Pōneke based designer James Dobson of Jimmy D; Wētā Workshop Make-up and Creature Effects Art Director Gino Acevedo; and CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Wētā Workshop Sir Richard Taylor.
Of the Supreme WOW Award winner, the judges said:
“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.”
The Wētā Workshop Emerging Designer Award was won by New Zealander Katherine Bertram with her garment Termite Cathedral, while fellow New Zealander Rebecca Bond’s Changing Perceptions, took away the Transformation Innovation Award.
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The Absolutely Positively Wellington International Awards went to Ece Özalp of Turkey (UK & Europe), Jill Perry of Australia (Australia & Pacific), Ashish Dhaka of India (Asia) and Sean Purucker and Tony Rivas of the United States (Americas), who also took out the Overall International Design Award.
The Tall Poppy People’s Choice Award is open for audiences to vote throughout the season and will be announced mid-October.
2024 WOW Show: DREAM AWAKE runs until 13 October at Wellington’s TSB Arena. Tickets are selling fast, but still available at worldofwearableart.com.
2024 WORLD OF WEARABLEART AWARD WINNERS*
Section winners
Aotearoa
Kārearea, Kayla Christensen, New Zealand
Open
He art, Xuancheng Liu & Jingyi Lin, China
Avant-garde
Curves Ahead, Grace DuVal, United States
Crazy Curiosities ofthe 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
Accor Live Limitless 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
Fisher Funds 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
Absolutely Positively Wellington International Design Awards
International Design Award – UK & Europe
Ethereal Shift, Ece Özalp, Turkey
International Design Award – Asia
Soundscape, Ashish Dhaka, India
International Design Award – Americas
GiGi the Wyrm of Spinelesque, Sean Purucker & Tony Rivas, United States
International Design Award – Australia & Pacific
Triptych Fashionistas, Jill Perry, Australia
International Design Award – OVERALL
GiGi the Wyrm of Spinelesque, Sean Purucker & Tony Rivas, United States
Supreme WOW Award
Winner
Curves Ahead, Grace DuVal, United States
Runner-Up
He art, Xuancheng Liu & Jingyi Lin, China
*Full awards list, including section Second and Third places, can be found here.
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