Something marvelous has been going on in New Zealand for nearly 4 decades, and I’m just now learning about it. Welcome to the World of WearableArt, A.K.A. WOW. It’s an annual art costume competition, and the contestants go all out. There’s performance and choreography and backup dancers; it’s like a days-long combination of the Project Runway unconventional materials and avant garde challenges mixed in with Cirque du Soleil with a few doses of sci fi and humor for good measure. In other words, I’m in love.

I did actually write about the WOW museum back in 2018, but I didn’t realize the costumes therein come from this glorious annual competition.

Each year, the competition is divided into sections, three recurring sections (Aotearoa (the area where the show is held each year), Avant Garde, and Open) and three additional sections unique to that year’s theme. The 2026 additional sections are Metallic, Kinetic, and Bizarre Bra. Finalists are declared in each section, then the overall judging is done on the winning looks from each section.

You can follow the World of WearableArt Competition on the WOW website and on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.