2025 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards
Garment: Tsukumogami
Section:Myths & Legends
Awarded: Supreme WOW Award, Myths & Legends-Winner
Century-old porcelain vases, imbued with spirit, begin to breathe and dance for the first time. The delicate ceramic, once brittle and inanimate, now pulses with life.
While living in Japan, Dawn was exposed to the intertwining of ancient Shinto legends told in modern Japanese culture. One of these myths is tsukumogami – the belief that a spirit may inhabit everyday items such as tools or tableware after 100 years of use. The demeanor of the spirit depends on the treatment of the object in its previous century of use. A kindly treated item blesses their user, while a poorly treated item causes mischief. Dawn and Ben researched the history of classical Japanese ceramics to understand and honor the craft of these decorative functional objects.The cobalt blue and white Japanese Shonzui porcelain features a range of traditional painted patterns commonly found throughout the decorative arts. Each pattern imbues the object with special meaning, so a many-patterned item contains even greater power. Shonzui was originally manufactured in China for export to Japanese markets. From the moment they were created, these objects were built to travel far from their makers to adorn homes abroad. Today, one may encounter such pieces displaying ikebana arranged flowers in a traditional home or shop; enveloped in sumptuous detail from head to toe. These garments reflect the Shinto belief that kami (spirits) reside in all things. Owners can influence the nature of that spirit, from benevolent protector to vengeful entity. The golden cracks offer clues about their former owners. Although the cracks display that these vases were once shattered on the leg of one, and shoulder of the other, the gold repairs reflect the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, wherein broken ceramic is repaired with tree resin and fine golden powder. Kintsugi celebrates the history and reverence of old things, presenting a conspicuous precious scar. Rather than discarding these vases, their owners restored them and allowed them to alight upon the stage together.
2022 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards
Garment: Royal Emissary
Section: Open
Awarded: Open Section – 3rd Place
A plea personified; multitudes imperiled; our fates are intertwined.
Humanity relies on the work of millions of bees to pollinate crops, and generate our food supplies. Top scientists around the world have reported dramatic losses, seeing 30-50% decline in North American and European bee populations each winter. Pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, and global warming are all factors against bees’ survival. The losses are unsustainable. While these causes are known, and the stakes include humanity’s own survival, little is apparently being done to save our essential pollinators.
Although the issue is complex and multifaceted, it is still possible to slow or reverse the problem. While the world is rife with social and environmental crises, it requires a unified and mighty effort to enact change. Royal Emissary is a champion for this vital cause. Her visage is neither human nor bee, but a third kind committed to saving man and bee at once.
2019 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards
Garment: Gemini: The Twins
Section: Avant-Garde
Awarded: Overall International Design Award, International Award: Americas Winner, Avant Garde Section – 3rd Place
Angels or Devils? Two beauties for certain.
Exalted elegance in exquisite mind-numbing detail. The twins’ spiraling patterns cascade over their curves, and hypnotize those who bear witness. Look too long and be lost forever in their fractal embrace. An encounter with a pair of super-human Gemini twins will hypnotize the onlooker, like a herd of sprinting zebras, or a striped cobra ready to strike. Their duplicitous agenda will not be known until it is revealed.
2018 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards
Garment: Foreign Bodies
Section: Under The Microscope
Awarded: Overall International Design Award, International Award: Americas Winner, Under The Microscope Section – 2nd Place
Nanotechnology joins the arterial rush to heal or harm.
There are over thirty-seven trillion cells in the human body. Red blood cells live for only one month on average before being consumed. The bleeding edge of technology is nano. Wherein, humans may soon access these trillions, and gain untold power over our own bodies.
Garment: Lady Ethereal
Section: Reflective Surfaces
Awarded: 3rd Place
19th century couture merges with cyberpunk to create a dream envisioned for other worlds.
Technology advances, propelling humans beyond Earth and toward the stars. Lady Ethereal is a noblewoman in a world where the Victorian silhouette has been re-imagined in space age style. By using natural and synthetic materials, cutting edge technology, and literary inspiration from the cyberpunk genre, Lady Ethereal is a celebration of the feminine form and celestial possibilities.
We looked to Victorian fashion silhouettes to achieve a curvaceous, flowing, and powerful form in galaxy patterned latex, integrating sculptural elements. We explored transforming acrylic into a material that pushed past its rigid nature, creating a shape that echoed the gown’s voluptuous silhouette.
2017 World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards
Garment: The Messenger
Section: Red
Awarded: 3rd Place
She watches over the living and transports the dead, the color of lifeblood that connects all. Across human history, birds are deemed as otherworldly beings. Exploring this concept, we created a birdlike spirit personified. Using studies of real specimens, Sculptor Lana Crooks created representations of the osprey wing and raven and sparrow bones by folding and sewing latex material to shape. Dawn looked to Art Nouveau fashion silhouettes to achieve a sensual, feminine, and dominating form, incorporating Lana’s sculptural elements.
Garment: Labyrinth Gown
Section: Wearable Technology
Awarded: 1st place
The body is a labyrinth of elements, existing in intimate balance. Maori culture revolves around primal elements, and their transmutation into life. Fire, water, stone, metal, all intertwine through our bodies, and strengthen our essence. We are each a complex labyrinth of elements, as unique as our fingerprints.
We have developed techniques for laser cutting and transferring intricate designs in sheet latex to create a stress-free bond. Ordinarily, hand-applied latex bonding results in minor stretching between the bonded layers, which causes curling and warping. The regular concentric curves in this design would not have been possible at this level of precision without our combination of vectored computer aided design, and physical techniques.