Get excited, all you designers, artists and makers out there, because the World of WearableArt (WOW) Awards Competition is back for another year. The internationally renowned event showcases original, innovative, and well-made designs that blur the line between fashion, design and art.

The competition culminates in the jaw-dropping WOW Awards Show held in Wellington, New Zealand, that attracts creatives from more than 40 countries every year, and an audience of more than 60,000 people. (And it’s easy to see why!) L: Echoplex – Goddess of Reverb, Natalie Hutton, Australia. R: Cube, Adam McAlavey, UK

As if getting your work in front of thousands of eyeballs isn’t enough incentive to enter, there’s also a total prize pool of over $185,000 NZD and the chance to work with global creative companies like Wētā Workshop (Wellington) and The Residency Experience (Los Angeles).

The WOW Awards Competition is open to anyone over the age of 18, from anywhere around the world, and from all walks of life. In short: it doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you have a strong idea that you can execute well. “For me, the joy and energy of wearable art is that it enables designers to see the body as a blank canvas on which they can develop any idea that appeals to them,” WOW founder Dame Suzie Moncrieff says. “The garments do not have to be commercially viable. They do not even have to take themselves seriously. The only thing they must be is wearable.”L: Absinthium, R. R. Pascoe, Australia. R: Refuse Refuge, Grace DuVal, United States

Finalists are selected based on their work and their ideas alone. During the judging process, judges won’t know anything about the designers; just the name of their garments and the inspiration behind them.

The 2023 competition has six ‘section themes’ to inspire designers, including three recurring sections (Aotearoa, Avant-garde and Open) and three new sections (Gold, Mars & Beyond and Bizarre Bra). Have a squiz at the WOW website for more information about the competition awards, and to register as a designer. Entries close on March 2nd, 2023. WOW finale, 2022