Where the WOW begins

Long before the lights go up and the extraordinary creations hit the stage, Havelock-based Sarah Nathan is in the WOW designers’ corner, helping bring their wildest ideas to life.

Words: Rachel Enright | Photos: World of WearableArt Ltd

From a small home office overlooking the water near Havelock, Sarah Nathan spends much of her working year thinking about extraordinary objects being created in studios, workshops and university classrooms around the world.

Eventually, about 100 of those creations will make their way to Wellington, where they will be transformed under lights, music and movement for one of New Zealand’s largest theatrical events.

But long before the curtain rises on the World of WearableArt (WOW) Show, there is a competition. And that’s where Sarah comes in. The Marlborough local is WOW’s Head of Competition.

“At the heart of WOW is a global wearable art competition,” Sarah explains. “Designers from all around the world create garments which are artworks, essentially artworks that can be worn.”

Her job is to nurture the designers who create them, oversee the competition process and, once the finalists are selected, become a kaitiaki of their garments. She and her team manage the works as they arrive, prepare them for the show, facilitate judging and help host around 100 designers who descend on Wellington around awards night.

But Sarah’s description of her job is simpler.

“I’m here for the designers.”

It’s something she actually said during her job interview, while also admitting she had never been to a WOW show.

She knew of WOW, of course, but between raising a family, running businesses and building a career across marketing and the arts, she had never made it along. It was the Competition, and the opportunity to advocate for creative people, that drew her in.

“My job is to deeply understand every work and understand the designer’s intention behind the creation.”

It’s a role that seems almost tailor-made for Sarah, although the path to finding it was anything but straightforward.

Born in Australia, Sarah studied marketing in Sydney before a corporate career with large global brands took her overseas and eventually to Wellington in her early 20s. She remembers arriving on one of the capital’s glorious days and immediately thinking, “Oh my gosh, I feel like I’m home.”

New Zealand stuck.

So too did a lifelong love of performance. Sarah has always acted, alongside the day jobs that paid the bills, later moving into directing and arts leadership. She eventually became CEO of Creative Waikato before accepting what sounded like another dream opportunity, working for a global theatre design company in London.

Sarah moved first, with her husband Hamish following in December 2019.

We all know what happened next.

Their planned five-year European adventure was abruptly curtailed by the pandemic and, after navigating the considerable challenge of getting themselves, two cats and a “great big bloody Labrador” home, they returned to New Zealand at the end of 2020.

Unable to travel Europe as planned, Sarah and Hamish bought a caravan instead and spent four weeks exploring the South Island. Towards the end of the trip, while heading back towards Picton, Sarah spotted a house for sale on Queen Charlotte Drive.

They had never discussed moving to Marlborough. They viewed it the following day.

“We hadn’t even got through the front door and our jaws were on the ground. We’re waterfront with mountains behind us. We just walked in and thought, ‘This is it.’”

Within three weeks, they had reorganised their lives around making it happen. What they hadn’t organised was Sarah’s next career move.

After renovating a cottage on their property into a B&B, the restlessness began creeping in. For all the serenity of the Sounds, Sarah needed creative stimulation and purpose.

Then she saw an advertisement for Head of Competition at WOW.

“I always thought I had a very odd CV,” she says. “Where are you going to find something in Marlborough that really aligns with that? I didn’t think in a million years that would happen.”

Suddenly, the odd CV made perfect sense. “This is my job for the rest of my life. I’ve had some really good jobs, but this is a dream job.” Four competitions later, Sarah’s creative life is not limited to the day job.

Since moving to Marlborough, she has also carved out time to direct for Havelock Community Theatre, first adapting A Christmas Carol, then taking on the considerably larger challenge of Alice in Wonderland – A Pantomime, with a cast of about 35, many of them children.

What struck her was the depth of creativity hidden within a relatively small community. Actors were only part of it. There were costume designers, set builders, lighting specialists and volunteers, with people travelling from Blenheim, Ōkaramio, Linkwater and the wider Pelorus area to be involved.

Wanting an archival recording of the show, Sarah approached Tui Video, whose team also films for WOW, to see if they might record their little Havelock production.

They agreed. After watching the first performance, the videographer’s father told Sarah he couldn’t believe what he had just seen on the Havelock stage. He didn’t think they could have achieved the same thing in a larger town. It was the intimacy of a small community, and people’s willingness to volunteer and help one another, that had made it possible.

“That’s theatre bringing people together,” Sarah says.

There is a parallel with her work at WOW, albeit on a vastly different scale. Year-round, WOW has about 20 full-time staff. Come showtime, that number swells to nearly 500, many returning year after year to play their part in bringing the spectacle to life.

Sarah’s place within that machine remains firmly with the designers.

WOW judging is blind, meaning an established international designer can find themselves competing on exactly the same platform as a university student or first-time entrant. About 30 percent of finalists in any given year are students, and Sarah is particularly keen to encourage more emerging designers from New Zealand and Australia.

Once selected, the garments come into WOW’s care, often months before their creators will see them again. Sarah learns the story and intention behind each work, and carries that knowledge into the rehearsal room as the show’s choreographers, wardrobe team, technicians and performers begin interpreting it for the stage.

Occasionally she might spot a movement that doesn’t quite fit the intention behind a garment, or a subtle detail that needs to be understood. Then the designers arrive in Wellington and see what has become of their creation.

“We hear time and time again people going, ‘I never knew my garment could do that. I never thought about my garment in that way.’” For Sarah, that is the magic of the process. “We literally bring it to life for them. We breathe life into their vision.”

Each year WOW presents six worlds that act as design challenges for entrants and ultimately become six distinct worlds on stage. Three remain constant: Aotearoa, Open and Avant-garde, while three special worlds change each year.

For 2026, they are Metallic, Kinetic and the returning audience favourite, Bizarre Bra.

As Head of Competition, Sarah helps determine those worlds in collaboration with WOW founder and resident judge Dame Suzie Moncrieff and Show Director Malia Johnston.

Bizarre Bra holds particular appeal for Sarah because, beyond the spectacle audiences love, it offers designers a more accessible entry point into WOW.

“If people are really nervous and overwhelmed, they get intimidated. But with Bizarre Bra, they can have a crack.”

Many go on to create full-sized garments in future competitions.

Those six worlds then become creative material for the wider show team, informing an enormous production that this year sits beneath the overarching theme GLO, celebrating creativity and energy.

The remarkable part is that much of the show’s creative development begins before the team knows exactly which garments will make the final cut. Once selected, the stories behind the works begin inspiring movement, music and AV, until everything somehow meets on stage.

“It’s alchemy what that team does,” Sarah says.

It is also, in many ways, an extension of the creative rebellion WOW was founded on almost 40 years ago, when Dame Suzie Moncrieff pushed back against a system that wasn’t supporting her creativity. That spirit of “rebelling against the mundane” remains part of WOW today.

And Sarah believes there is something particularly valuable about gathering to experience human creativity in its physical form. At a time when optimism can sometimes feel in short supply, there is something important about seeing real art, made by hand, transformed into a live experience.

“And then that is wrapped up in this bubble of joy,” she says.

This year, audiences can experience that glowing joy when the 2026 WOW Show opens at Wellington’s TSB Arena on Thursday 17 September. Awards Night follows on Friday 18 September, when the Competition winners are revealed, with the season continuing until 4 October. Several performances are already selling fast.

After show season, Sarah returns home to the Sounds. She knows herself well enough to understand she needs both worlds. “I’m either a million miles an hour or a sloth,” she laughs.

“Sloth mode” is home, where she has become so accustomed to the water outside her window she can now recognise the changing tide simply by the way it sits.

There is a rhythm to it. After disappearing into the WOW whirlwind, she returns to Marlborough just as the season is changing.

“I come home, the blossoms and the daffodils are out and spring has sprung.”

After months spent nurturing other people’s creativity and watching it come to life on stage, it is her turn to replenish. For a while, at least. The next competition, marking 40 years of WOW in 2027, is already beginning.