Wearable Art

This sounds like great fun. As described in an article (New Zealand's 'Wearable Art' Show Spurs Fashion, Film Careers, October 3) by Tina Morrison for Bloomberg News, it's time for the World of WearableArt Awards in Nelson, New Zealand:

Among other prize winners, Rodney Leong, whose reptilian skin creation made of recycled zips and foam won the avant-garde section this year, works for New Zealand designer Trelise Cooper, who counts actresses Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon and Sharon Stone among her customers. "The props they have are utterly world class in imagination and make," said Liz Mitchell, an Auckland-based clothing designer who helped judge the show this year. Mitchell, whose customers include Prime Minister Helen Clark, said she can't think of an equivalent show to the World of WearableArts.

"It's not fashion so it's not like a catwalk show," Mitchell said. "It has that feeling more of a theatrical performance event rather than being a competition for clothes." A record 30,000 people bought tickets to this year's eight performances, with the best seats costing NZ$95. In the weeks leading up to the show, tickets traded for as much as NZ$153 on Trade-Me, a New Zealand Web-based business similar to eBay Inc. Prime Minister Clark, who made a surprise appearance as a model on the catwalk at 2002's show, told the audience on opening night this year that her favorite was a bra made to look like sliced kiwi fruit, modeled by a man in the Bizarre Bra section of the show.

Take a look at the rest of the winners here.