A husband-and-wife design team from the United States have taken out the top prize in the 2025 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards, announced at the TSB Arena in Wellington on Friday night.<\/p>\n
\n Dawn Mostow and Ben Gould\u2019s intricate latex creation, Tsukumogami, drew on Japanese classical, centuries-old blue ceramics crowned with
\n blue and white ikebana flowers. Traditionally, these ceramics are said to be imbued with a live spirit.\n <\/p>\n
Describing it as a blend of the past and the future, WOW stated the creation was \u201cradically innovative and future forward, while at the same time paying exquisite homage to centuries-old artistic and cultural traditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cA work that captivates the eye and refuses to let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The strong Japanese influence reflected in the couple\u2019s designs stems from Mostow\u2019s years of living in Japan, fascination with the Japanese belief that objects can be imbued with spirit and kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken ceramics with golden seams to enhance their value.<\/p>\n
Although the couple have been regular finalists since 2017, this year\u2019s victory marks the first time they have taken out the Supreme WOW Award.<\/p>\n
Runner-up to the award was Wellingtonian Fiji Colston\u2019s 30th WOW creation, Meine Erste Liebe.<\/p>\n
Meine Erste Liebe by Fifi Colston of Wellington. Photo \/ Stephen A\u2019Court.<\/p>\n
Inspired by a 19th-century tale about the ill-fated love between a German botanical artist and his wife, judges described the garment as \u201ca work that takes your breath away. A living archive of hundreds of years of artistic technique and a divinely composed ode to love, loss and art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last Saturday, Colston announced this would be her final WOW competition and she will retire after competing in the fashion design show since 1990.<\/p>\n
In an interview with RNZ, Colston said: \u201cI\u2019m going to draw and sketch every day and move away from digital, and then I\u2019ll just see what comes out of that \u2026 something will come up for me.\u201c<\/p>\n
Worn Landscape by Cushla O’Connell of Lincoln. Photo \/ Stephen A’Court.<\/p>\n
Winner of the W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop Award for Outstanding Design, Cantabrian Cushla O\u2019Connell\u2019s garment, Worn Landscape, featured a landscape image created from more than 6000 upcycled buttons.<\/p>\n
W\u0113t\u0101 Workshop founder and chief executive Sir Richard Taylor, who judged the award, said O\u2019Connell\u2019s creation was \u201cimbued with the spirit of a Hayao Miyazaki-inspired world\u201d.<\/p>\n
The inaugural Te Tohu Toi R\u0101kei – a new WOW Competition award recognising and celebrating excellence in M\u0101ori art, craft and design when translated into a work of wearable art – was awarded to Anna Hayes-Moeau (Ngati Kahungunu ki te Wairoa) for her work, Ko au ko Harakeke, Ko Harakeke ko au.<\/p>\n
Ko au ko Harakeke, Ko Harakeke ko au by Anna Hayes-Moeau. Photo \/ Stephen A’Court<\/p>\n
Category judges Karl Chitham (Te Uriroroi and Ng\u0101 Puhi) and Isaac Te Awa (Ng\u0101puhi, K\u0101ti M\u0101moe, Kai Tahu, Waitaha) said the entry stood out for \u201celevating traditional materials and techniques with exquisite attention to detail\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incorporation of whakapapa and p\u016br\u0101kau transforms the work from something familiar to something extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
WOW head of competition Sarah Nathan said there was again an extraordinary level of creativity and technical skills evident in the finalist garments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see the wearable art form continue to thrive, grow and push boundaries across craft, storytelling and materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across 25 awards, 85 finalists created by 100 designers from 17 countries competed for a prize pool of more than $200,000.<\/p>\n
2025 World of Wearableart winners<\/p>\n
Supreme WOW Award – Tsukumogami, Dawn Mostow & Ben Gould, United StatesSupreme WOW Award Runner-up – Meine Erste Liebe, Fifi Colston, Wellington, New ZealandOpen Section – Meine Erste Liebe, Fifi Colston, Wellington, New ZealandAvant-garde Section – Void, Hung Cho Hei Joe, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, ChinaAotearoa Section – Worn Landscape, Cushla O\u2019Connell, Christchurch, New ZealandAir Section – Wau Bulan, Faris Fairusham, Victoria University of Wellington, MalaysiaNeon Section – Drift, Katherine Bertram, New ZealandMyths & Legends Section – Tsukumogami, Dawn Mostow & Ben Gould, United StatesKo te Tohu Toi R\u0101kei\u202f\/ Toi R\u0101kei Award – Ko Au Ko Harakeke, Ko Harakeke Ko Au, Anna Hayes-Moeau, Rotorua, New ZealandAccor Live Limitless First-time Entrant Award – Invisible Tale, Yu Wang, Beijing Institute of Fashion, Hong Kong, ChinaStudent Distinction Award – Under _\u2019s Gaze, Everything Magnifies, Yuchen Jiang, Central Saint Martins, United KingdomSustainability Award – Salome, R.R. Pascoe, AustraliaNew Zealand Design Merit Award – First Light, Lindal Linton, Brett Linton & Harvey Linton, Wellington, New ZealandW\u0113t\u0101 Workshop Outstanding Design Award – Worn Landscape, Cushla O\u2019Connell, Lincoln, New ZealandGreat Journeys New Zealand Designer Development Award – Grandy C, CanadaDame Suzie Moncrieff Award – Beeing Mary Bumby, Jan Kerr, \u014ctaki, New Zealand<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A husband-and-wife design team from the United States have taken out the top prize in the 2025 World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[836,696,28440,10779,13114,501,11111,156,4999,71,305,27162,30533,111,139,2551,69,10512,9939,30246,19554,7187,9938,3040,30534,52,10508,4576,377,2139],"class_list":{"0":"post-31993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-836","9":"tag-announced","10":"tag-arena","11":"tag-awards","12":"tag-crowned","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-designers","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-friday","17":"tag-from","18":"tag-have","19":"tag-husbandandwife","20":"tag-japaneseinspired","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-night","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-prize","26":"tag-states","27":"tag-supreme","28":"tag-taken","29":"tag-team","30":"tag-united","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-wearableart","33":"tag-wellington","34":"tag-winner","35":"tag-work","36":"tag-world","37":"tag-wow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}