As I already wrote about in advance, thanks to the lovely Barbara at the Wellington City Council, Kowhai, Robyn and I got to go to the Montana World of WearableArts Awards. It really did make me go wow, like, a lot. Obviously, it was more about the art than the wearable, but if I go through my experiences of the night in a loose semi-chronological order, I will pull out my notes about making some of it translate to real life, okay? Yes. It’s going to be a long post, so I’ll put it after a jump.

The show itself

To be honest, I’ve seen previous years on TV before, and I was kind of a bit “well, I don’t really think it’s for me”. Seeing it live, however, was a whole new experience. I was totally blown away by the showmanship of it all – the amazing sets with trees coming down from the ceiling, floating birds’ nests, opera divas on huge big billowing pyramids, dancers everywhere, glitter falling from the sky, a mini covered in mirrors that was pushed out onto the stage and then hoisted up to act as a disco ball… Seriously, WOW is the right word for it all. Or WOWA, if you’re Hadyn and can’t deal with CamelCap words like WearableArt.

• And because PPP is all about making thing accessible in the real world, in order to recreate the disco feeling of the car, might I suggest buying these golden chuck taylors, and preferably buy me a pair too?
• And if you want to play Super Hero, like the adorable group of women who were all dressed up as (male) super heroes, you really must get yourself a Wonder Woman cami & panty set from the BUST Boobtique.

What the audience wore

First up, and naturally most importantly, I ended up wearing a purple satin dress from the Carpenter’s Daughter with fuchsia tights from we love colors and a fuchsia clutch borrowed from Megan. I’d like to show you photos but while I was out wowing it up, my house got burgled and my camera got taken. Kowhai was representing in a low-backed emerald green dress, but pretty much every single other person in the media room was wearing black. There were some people who’d clearly gone to a lot of effort to dress up, but the majority of the audience also appeared to be wearing black, except for a surprising number of people in red trenchcoats. I think we now know where in the world Carmen Sandeigo is…

• Ezibuy have a surprisingly large selection of red coats if you want to get in on the Carmen Sandeigo action, or if you also hate those damn colonial militias…
• Many of the award-winners disappointingly wore black as well, but Paula Rowan who won the kids’ section had a fabulous dress that reminded me very much of the first one from the City Chic runway show in Australia perhaps crossed with this one from Torrid which would not normally be the sort of dress that I’d be into but I’ve seen some fatshionistas rocking it. Yes, I read a lot of curvy fashion blogs right now, apparently.

Marie Antoinette is so hott right now

I thought there were other dresses on the same theme, but I can’t find images of them. We all know I totally started this trend though.

• I’m too lazy to come up with my own Marie Antoinette type fashion suggestions, but luckily Polyvore is overflowing with them!

Some other observations about the night

I think that the illuminated section is totally for the older section of the audience who never took acid and went to a rave in the mid ’90s. Or maybe it’s for those who did and want to get all awww nostalgia about it.

Hot trends from the night to take away: feathers are coming back, as are white tights (oh god why?) and based on Jennifer Ward Leland’s fantastic dress, expect to see a lot of midnight blue clothing coming out as well. Hurray!

Bad Tom was totally represented!

Separated at birth?

Okay, so I’ve been working on this post for an hour now, and I still don’t think I’ve managed to convey how fricking awesome the show is. I really do think you should consider going along next year. I’ll even assemble you an outfit to wear to it, if you ask nicely…