SWAG Categories 2024
The theme for the 2024 Sydney Wearable Art Gala is:
VAUDEVILLE
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players”
-As you Like it, Act 2, Scene 7
Vaudeville was a type of entertainment popular in the early 20th century, now referred to as “Variety”, it features a mixture of speciality acts such as burlesque, drag, circus, magic, physical theatre, comedy, song and dance.
Wearable art is often defined as the outfit you would NOT choose to go shopping in, but, if all the world was a stage, then all is illusion, and everything is possible!
With that in mind, Designers/Creators/Artists are invited to enter their wearable art in any of the following six categories:
Haus of Dr. Frankenstein
McPunk!
The Vaudavillians
Headworks
Out of this world!
Fairy Tales Behaving Badly (The next level of bad!)
Detailed category descriptions below or Click HERE to Download a printable version
Updated terms and conditions are available on the Entry Form page
Category 1
Haus of Dr. Frankenstein (Reviving dead textiles!)
Sustainable Futures
Everything old is new again! Re-use, Re-invigorate and Revive! This category is about reviving the dead and creating sustainable fashion out of existing materials. Your wearable art needs to address issues around up-scaling and recycling, and explore ideas for reusing ‘single use’, man-made materials.
Sustainable art pieces need to be made up of 75% sustainable/recycled textiles/materials. Entries must bring together a combination of man-made and/or natural fibers to create new textiles in interesting and innovative ways.
Think of yourself as mad Dr. Frankenstein working in your Fashion laboratory - interrogate, dissect, manipulate, re-imagine, and reprocess to give new life to pre-loved textiles.
Experiment with felting, shredding, crushing, ruching, dyeing, draping, layering, quilting, burning, and appliquéing one or more materials to build new textiles. Then, with your new textile, reinterpret its relationship and application to the human body.
In true Vaudeville style, take a range of influences, be they historical or contemporary, utilitarian or decorative, high fashion couture, or the workhouse, the mundane or the surreal, and apply to your wearable art creation.
Important Notes:
Appropriate footwear must be worn on stage.
Sustainable art pieces must be made up of 75% sustainable/recycled textiles/materials.
Dried flowers/plants can be included in your wearable art, but must be securely attached to the body. Unsecured falling leaves are a safety hazzard on stage, and it will be the responsibility of the designer to manage and maintain these elements.
Wearable Art designed for this category does NOT have to be Horror themed, or based on Frankenstein’s Monster. This category is about sustainability, and designs should focus on the concept of revival and finding interesting ways to give new life to discarded textiles and objects.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Category 2
McPunk!
The Tartan Revolution
This category is all about revisionist historical costumes. Historical drama with a twist! Start with a period silhouette or a traditional style, and re-imagine it with unexpected cutaways and reveals!
Re-imagine historical fashion styles with a splash of Tartan.
We’re looking for exciting and unconventional mish-mashes of period styles – imagine Lady Macbeth airlifted to the French court of Versailles - hooped shirts and panniers, laced up colonial pantaloons and continental corsetry, or a 1970’s Bonnie Prince Charles - resplendent in sporran and Kilt, spiked hair and chains, and everything in between! Use tartan and lace, leather, and safety pins, and maybe add a flash of Fluorescent colour to spice things up?
This is your chance to Disappoint your parents and put the boot into history. Highland fling meets Steam-Punk rock. Get out your family tartan, steal your neighbours, or make your own!
Important Notes:
Works submitted to this category can be historical costume from any period. The only compulsory element for this category is TARTAN. How it is applied and incorporated is up to the designer. All other elements listed above are suggestions to help establish the tone of this category.
Appropriate footwear must be on stage.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Category 3
The Vaudavillians
Wearable Performance Art
This is an open category for emerging/or professional performers who want to explore Wearable Art as an extension of their own act on the iconic Enmore Stage.
Performers entering this category must design an original wearable artwork that enhances your performance. Performers can collaborate with designers to create new works, but must be credited.
Performances may include:
Burlesque
Cabaret
Drag
Circus
Magic
Physical theatre
Comedy
Dance
Other styles will be considered
Submissions to this category must include an audition video, showing examples of performance.
Important Notes:
Performances in this category may not exceed two (2) minutes and must supply their own soundtrack.
Performers who are interested in entering this category, but are unsure about the wearable art component can contact SWA before the submission deadline to discuss.
This category is not open to singers, unless the voice is additional to the drag, burlesque or comedy genre.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Category 4
Headworks
Millinery & Headpieces
This category is a celebration of art worn on the head, and is open to all styles of Headpiece, from traditionally flamboyant millinery pieces through to wild and innovative new headwear styles, including horns, helmets, masks and wigs.
Headworks has an open theme with only one criteria: That the artwork is supported by the head.
Think outside the hatbox: The bigger the better.
Suggested colours: One flat strong colour, (not Pastel), plus white, with black accents.
Important Notes:
For Show: To emphasise the headpieces, wearable artists will need to wear all black on an appropriate body silhouette to accompany the headpiece for the catwalk presentation. This should be realized by sourcing all black garments ie: Military uniform, Hoop dress, Edwardian bustle, 50’s rocker, 80’s power suit, 20’s flapper, wet suit, or mix and match, whatever body silhouette adds to the narrative of your headwork.
Covered footwear must be worn on stage.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Category 5
Out of this world!
Original Sci-Fi Cosplay
For the cosplayers and the nerds, this category is a showcase of the weird and wonderful world of science fiction, and may be inspired by Comics, Anime, B-grade Sci-Fi flicks, slick futurist movies, or classic TV series.
All wearable art creations must be your own original unique creation but can be a fresh take on an iconic creature, robot, monster, or off-world species. Give us a glimpse into the future and push the limits of anatomy by developing bizarre and terrifying new concepts in the vein of the sci-fi icons like Dr. Who, Star Trek, or ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes’.
Important Notes:
Your wearable art cannot feature copyrighted characters, logos or recognisable elements from existing franchises, and must be original concepts created by you.
Props may be employed (like fantastical looking ray guns etc), but the use of realistic looking ‘military style weapons’ are not permitted in show.
Covered footwear must be worn on stage.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Category 6
Fairy Tales Behaving Badly (The next level of bad!)
Fantasy
Explore the darker side of fantasy, and enter the shadowy world of Fairy-Tales. Before Disney sanitized their stories the Brothers Grimm told cautionary tales to scare children into good behaviour. They featured complex and tragic characters, terrifying creatures, dark metaphors and bittersweet endings.
Fairy tales aren’t just for children, they can be as visually unsettling as Pan’s Labyrinth or as tongue in cheek as the animated classic Shrek, where the fairy tale characters lose the plot, and rebel against sweetness.
Wearable art for this category can be based on classic fairytale themes and imagery, or be modern versions of existing fairy tale characters, folk-tales, traditional stories, or entirely new cautionary tales for the modern world.
Important Notes:
If costumes are based on existing characters, they must be your own original interpretation of that character, and cannot be based on recognisable likenesses, or trademarked versions of characters. For instance: You can create your own version of public domain characters like Cinderella or Snow White, but entries cannot be obvious recreations of Disney’s versions of Cinderella or Snow White.
Appropriate footwear must be worn on stage.
Detailed terms and conditions of entry are available on the Sydney Wearable Art website.
Are you interested in one of the categories but don’t know where to start?
To help you realise your creations – consider enrolling in our Sydney Wearable Art Teaching Program (SWAT) for government funded (fee-free) short courses offered over a 9 week period face to face at the Design Centre Enmore in the following:
Make Wearable Art 1, 2 & 3
Make Original Costumes for Cosplay, Film & Theatre
Make Headpieces as Wearable Art 1 & 2
Make Props for Cosplay, Film & Theatre 1 & 2
Or enrol in our Sydney Wearable Art online Mentor Program for long distance participants.
Additionally, talk to us about our full time courses, including Certificates III & IV’s and Diplomas or Advanced Diploma in Multi-Disciplinary Design with two entry points in February and July at the DCE.
For more information visit:
sydneywearableart.com.au/swat-teaching-program or tafensw.edu.au