2024 World of WearableArt (WOW) graced windy Wellington and announced its 2024 winners, with US designer Grace DuVal taking home the Supreme Award.
In her sixth entry and win, hailing from the United States, Grace DuVal takes home the Supreme Award for the first time for her garment named ‘Curves Ahead’.
Head of Competition, Sarah Nathan says the 2024 edition of WOW was “hotly contested this year”, full of “phenomenal quality of construction and concept across the board”.
“The unbridled imagination of designers who breathe garments to life with exacting skill and ingenuity never fails to inspire us,” she says.
DuVal’s work may seem like a high vis cone, but the garment is actually inspired by the strength and resilience of the rebuild efforts following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.
The concept for her garment was conceptualised around a road trip she had in New Zealand in 2017 after being named runner up to the Supreme Award for WOW with her garment, ‘Refuse Refuge‘, 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.
She explains that the garment is sculpturally hand-draped out of vinyl reflective construction signs, then topped with a striking spiked crown of plastic cones and fibreglass poles.
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Held together by with custom-modelled 3D printed components. Plastic mesh, barrier fencing emanates from the skirt to create a ruffle “of celebration”.
The judging panel comprised of 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.
For DuVal’s piece judges say it 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,” they add.
The full list of winners:
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
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
