Having almost two decades of competing at the World of WearableArt (Wow) up her sleeve, brand new Geraldine resident Jo Odgers has become a finalist for the eighth time.
While the creation would remain top secret until its debut at Wow later in the year, Ms Odgers could part with her inspiration.
Before moving to Geraldine, she had been working at a curtain-making shop in Tauranga.
She said she started collecting all of the fabric samples — which hung looped down from its signage — before they headed to landfill.
‘‘Everything nice gets chucked away these days.’’
So when she and her husband Myles Thomas decided to make the move to Geraldine last year, she decided the two big containers of curtain fabric samples had to be moved to Geraldine with them.
‘‘They were really heavy, and you have to pay by weight.
‘‘Myles is the most supportive and obliging person when it comes to my creative chaos, so there were no questions asked.’’
But she admitted there might have been ‘‘a bit of eye rolling’’.
Creating the costume was not straightforward; firstly, there were the injuries.
Hand cutting all the samples gave her ‘‘a blister through a blister’’, she said.
‘‘So I was taping it up and carrying on.’’
And then there were her cats.
They always went crazy when she was creating pieces, Ms Odgers said.
‘‘They climb up things, and sleep in things.’’
She often found herself asking after their whereabouts before finding them hidden ‘‘in the depths’’ of a costume.
While this entry had effectively been free, because of all the samples she had collected, she had come upon an unexpected cost.
Being pressed for time with finishing the final details, she had decided, instead of sending the costume, to take a flight to deliver it in person — ‘‘buying four more days’’.
However, the plane was delayed.
‘‘We landed at 3.45pm and then I couldn’t find a taxi, so I handed it in at 4.15pm with only 45 minutes to spare!’’
At the same time as she created her Wow entry, she was also creating a costume for Miss New Zealand.
The ‘‘gig’’ had come about years ago, originating from her involvement in Wow, she said.
When an entrant contacted her to say she was representing New Zealand and she needed a national costume, Ms Odgers created ‘‘Land of the Long White Cloud’’.
The entrant won best in national costume and it ‘‘just went from there’’.
Miss New Zealand bought the collection of outfits, which they hired out to entrants.
But Ms Odgers is still making costumes for them.
Working from home freed up ‘‘mind space’’, she said.
When Ms Odgers and her sister had been figure skaters in the ’80s — competing at a national level — she had taken to costume design.
Eleven creations had not made the cut for Wow over the last 18 years, she said.
The entries were judged ‘‘blind’’, with lots of factors involved in judging.
Some of the factors included what materials had been used, whether the judges had ‘‘seen anything like it before, and the techniques used’’.
‘‘Sometimes some of my most favourite things don’t get in,’’ Ms Odgers said.
