WoWing Auckland

Garments are limited only by their creators' imagination.

Wellington’s World of Wearable Art exhibition has headed off on a five-year global tour — and first stop is our city, writes Catherine Smith

There's always been a sniffy rivalry between Auckland and Wellington. Well, Auckland and everywhere for that matter, but in the world of culture, it's definitely Wellington that grinds our gears. We try not to let it bother us, but then Welly pips us - first with a wonderfully designed and walkable waterfront decades before we got our work-in-progress snippet.

Then there's their Ian Athsfield-designed library, Te Papa museum winning awards, the national symphony and ballet.

And the most recent insult was when the city won the World of Wearable Art show from little sister-across-the-sea Nelson.

Now in its 26th year, World of Wearable Art has long moved on from the first parade of handknitted cardies in a tiny gallery. This year it wowed more than 53,000 people, more than half of the 150 garments came from international competitors and the whole of Wellington central seemed to be in celebration mode. Nearly three-quarters of the crowd were out-of-towners - Air New Zealand is a sponsor, so the fun starts as you climb on board the plane.

The treat WoW gives is not just the garments themselves; mind-blowingly clever as they may be. Many folks become repeat visitors for the theatre and staging; no cheesey model stage walks here. There are established categories - Bizarre Bras created the necessary press fuss with its cheeky entries; the children's section is whimsical and sweet. The South Pacific section has provocatively moved well beyond tapa and weaving: this year's winner, Kate MacKenzie's Poly Nation, reworked vintage suitcases into a sophisticated commentary on travel, integration and belonging. Many pieces used materials such as balloons, polypropylene, papier mache and feathers.

There's always a mad, mad open section and an avant garde category - I've never quite figured out the difference - but it is the Creative Excellence and the grand finale Costume and Film (sponsored, naturally, by Weta Workshop) sections that always top the show with outstanding staging and story-telling. This year's Creative Excellence section - Airborne - featured pieces made mostly from wafty materials such as vintage parachute silk filled with air from dozens of old-fashioned fans. The dancers ran, creating shapes with the fabrics; the effect was ethereal.

The final grand piece, Kingdoms of the East, had rafts of Chinese dancers with fans and floaty sleeves creating the court of a more-than-magnificent emperor. Sixteen Shaolin monks from Henan, China, leaped through the set with gymnastics, war games and more to stun the crowd. There were lights, there were acrobatics, there were cheeky dancers, there was music and pace.

The crowd is more than just the expected middle-aged crafty sorts - the theatre is thronged with art and music students, wide-eyed children, fashionistas. There are makeup artists, dancers and masterful hairstylists creating the story around the costumes, plus a mind-boggling number of backstage crew, dressers and more (in the programme the production crew list runs to six pages).

But this year we get an enticing snippet of what our capital brethren get every year. WoW has created a touring exhibition that debuts at Auckland Museum before heading on a five-year worldwide tour starting in Australia and then on to the United States. Award-winning garments from 1998 onwards, 32 in all, have been curated from the permanent WoW collection at their Nelson headquarters, along with interpretive touch screens, audio visuals and an interactive material mobile app, STQRY. There'll be designer talks and also an education programme to help us delve into the magic of the awards.

Need to know

World of Wearable Art exhibition, Auckland War Memorial Museum until March 22, 2015. Free with museum entry.

Art and fashion collide in a world-first, exclusive to Auckland Museum. Get up close with WOW World of WearableArt, in a new showcase of some of the best WOW garments from 1998 to 2013. Performance buffs will love the three screens playing footage from the awards show. Get exclusive access to stories, images and details behind WOW with the STQRY app, available for iOS and android. At points around the show, you can access images and details of the garments, learn about the designers' inspiration for the garments and share your experiences too.
aucklandmuseum.com
worldofwearableart.com