Sarah Nathan: WOW Head of Competition on the final judging for this year's event

Designers and creatives from all over the world have come together for the 34th annual World of Wearable Art competition.

This year's event is taking up residence at Wellington's TSB Arena in Te Whanganui-a-Tara - with the final round of judging set to take place on Monday evening.

WOW Head of Competition Sarah Nathan says the calibre of entrants this year is extremely high.

"I think what you see year on year is - at one end, you've got technology, advancing materials and the way people manipulate materials and come up with new ways. And on the other end, you've got that beautiful hand craft, which always blows our minds."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Every year I am in complete awe with the mad
creativity that goes into the world of wearable art. And
at the heart of WHILEE is the Wearable Art competition.
There is huge demand internationally for designers to nab a
place in the show. Final judging takes place tomorrow night
and to talk me through this year's entries. Head of Competition,
Sarah Nathan joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Good morning, Sarah, Good morning, Francesca, how are you good?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you? So talk me through how the competition works.
You've got final judging taking place tomorrow night. Yes, what's
the process like to get to final judging.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's a very long process for designers, especially an international designer.
And this year they represent over sixty exxent of the
finalist garments. So they generally the year before they complete
their garment so garments and this year mostly we're completed
in twenty twenty three. In February. They upload their photographs,

(01:14):
videos and descriptions on our Designer Portal system and then
they are pre selected. So then really when we're pre selecting,
we're looking we're looking for garments that you know, we
we really believe are finalists, and so all of those
garments and then the same happens in New Zealand a
month or two later, and those garments are then sent

(01:36):
to us in Nelson. So we still have our wardrobe
department and our offices in Nelson in parts, so everything
comes there. So then it goes through three judging processes.
The first one is confirmation of selection and we call
that first judging and that's when the judges get to
see the garments up close. And then of course our

(01:58):
highest school technical team, they're looking at quality of construction.
Health and safety is really important. You know, when you're
looking at the heights of shoes headwear, you know you're
thinking about visibility and breathability because those models are on
stage for a long time over the seasons. So then
they're selected. Then we know who our finalists are. Then

(02:20):
our garments will comes to Wellington in August when we
start loading into the TSP arenas, and then there's another
two rounds of judging. The first one is the first
time that the judges see the garments with choreography and
movement and so many of the garments are designed specifically
that when they're in movement they look at their best

(02:42):
and then the fine one, the final sorry I should
say final one is as you say, tomorrow night, Monday night,
final judging, and that's where the show's just about ready.
So you're seeing everything in its full glory with the
right lighting, all of the music, all of the pathways
and choreography in place. And yeah, so its process and tell.

(03:07):
The other thing that most people don't realize is it's
we call it blind judging. So when the judges see
the garment, they don't know who the designer is, they
don't know what country it came from. All they know
is the name of the garment.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
What is the caliber of entries?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Like this year, it's insanely great as usual, it was.
I was thinking about that question because it's always really
really high, and because you don't it's not that we
have a set number of garments that we bring in
every year. Every year. What's in the show is the
cream of the crop. And we often get asked by

(03:44):
you know, the public and desire how many did you get?
I say, well, it doesn't really matter if that's a
big number or a little number. All you need to
know is what you see is the cream of the crop.
And but I think what you see year on year
is as you kind of got. At one end, you've
got technology, is advancing material materiality and the way that

(04:06):
people manipulate materiality, come up with new ways. And at
the other end, you've just got that beautiful hand craft
which always blows our mind ASISI when you do get
to see them up close.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Sarah Well is so incredibly popular. What do you put
its success down to? Is it that it just continues
to push boundaries and the audiences just see something new
and more stunning year on year.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
It is phenomenal, and it's I think it is. I
think on one hand, you know, you wouldn't have well
without the garments, right, I mean, the show is phenomenal
and the show what they do it is you know,
it's of the highest international standard. But the reality is
without the basis of the garments, we don't have the concept.

(04:54):
So why the designers keep coming back. Wise, it's still
popular because there's nowhere else in the world where they
can they can design without the limitation of commercial constraint.
So you might be a high station designer, you might
be a costume designer. You might work in a particularly
specialized craft, but why would you create this sort of

(05:19):
creation other than Wow. So that's why it works from
the garment perspective, from the audience perspective, because it's never
the same. Every year, it's different because the garments are different,
the show is different, so the story is different. And
I think the final special source is that it just
brings joy. You know, use the word or when you

(05:41):
introduce it, and it just is it's or inspiring. I
sat through a rehearsal last night, and you know, we're
getting pretty close now, and I've been I've been with
these garments since January, and I his on my arms
stand up and I think particularly you know, times like

(06:07):
this where this cost of living crisis, a lot of
people are having a really hard time, people are still
looking for that moment of joy and awe and to
walk out, you know, with an airworm of a song
and so much to talk about.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Absolutely, Sarah, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Best of luck for the week, Have a great week.
That was head of competition, Sarah Nathan from Wow. The
final judging is on Monday night. The awards ceremony is
this Friday Night, and the show runs from this Thursday,
the twenty sixth, to Sunday, the thirteenth of October.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio