'Art U Wear' 2012 Competition Now Open

The 2012 Art U Wear competition is now inviting textile artists across this sunburnt country to submit their best and wildest work for judging. The 2012 theme is 'The Fairest of them All', for which textile artists must match with the creation of an artwork that is wearable as a costume.

Expertise Events and Bernina are the sponsors of the Art U Wear competition, with Expertise Events, a professional event-planning company that provides services across Australia, closely working with several iconic venues such as the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne and Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, the latter where the Art U Wear Competition’s finalists’ works will be presented at the Craft & Quilt Fair Sydney. Bernina is an Australian company that produces Swiss-made sewing machines for sale to individuals and companies. Both sponsors will present prizes and awards of up to $5,000 for the winners of the competition.

The submissions under Art U Wear will be judged on creativity, interpretation, design merit and workmanship, with one of the few conditions being that it must be created primarily from textile materials. Once the finalists are selected, their works will become an aspect of the Craft & Quilt Fair, a convention of all things threaded and glued, visiting several major cities of Australia. The Craft & Quilt Fair will kick off in Sydney on 13th to the 17th of June 2012, before moving to the likes of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and so on, including Hamilton in New Zealand.

The Art U wear competition, beginning in 2010 under Textile Arts Festival, has attracted amazing designers with stunning interpretations of the themes in the past. The theme of the Art U Wear 2011 competition was ‘Circus Bersekus’, which turned out a series of zany circus-themed outfits that treaded the outrageous, with the winner being a Kirry Toose of NSW. Toose’s outfit, titled ‘Tilly the Tightrope Walker’ was a tailored rainbow of colours and tassels, with intricate quilting of silk and boning, collecting the designer a $3,000 prize. The second place went to Tess Tavener of NSW, a crafty fourteen-year old who blew away the judges with a costume that had 1,784 pom-poms sewn on a corset and hula-hoop outfit.

Judy Newman, part of Expertise Events and organiser of the Art U Wear competition, excitedly awaits the entries for this year’s fabric extravaganza; “Interpretation of the theme is only the start of brilliant wearable art; the garments are also a showcase of an amazing array of textile techniques. And the exhibition is always a pleasure to see because the aim of creating wearable art is purely aesthetic. There’s no requirement for easy laundering, no need to consider comfort; the designer can go for it – no holds barred. Creativity is king – it makes for a wonderful show!”

The submissions deadline for the Art U Wear 2012 competition is on the 5th of April.