Couple’s costume hobby puts WOW factor on show in Plimmerton

HUSBAND and wife team Vicki and Mark Haydock’s relationship has the WOW factor.

They have had three costumes accepted into the World of Wearable Art show in the past five years.

This year’s entry did not make the cut, but the Haydocks are still involved exhibiting three of their five pieces, at The Emerging Light Gallery in Plimmerton.

Three other Wellington designers are also exhibiting at the gallery.

The couple, who both work full time, have been dedicating weekends and holidays since 2010 designing and creating costumes to enter into WOW.

The team’s creative journey was inspired by a 1993 visit to the Nelson Polytechnic where they witnessed final preparations taking place for the WOW show.

“I saw the costumes and thought oh that would be really fun,” says Vicki.

After 17 years of world travel and raising a family, graphic designer Mark and wife Vicki, an occupational therapist, decided to combine their different skills and give WOW a go.

“It’s really cool because you can set yourself a goal and it might take you that long to do it but you can still get there.”

The duo’s first piece made in 2010 is a pink bra called Bed of Flowers which Vicki says has a Dr Seuss feel to it.

The design was inspired by a retro quilted bed Vicki had as a child, and little crochet flowers that her grandmother had made in the 1980’s initially meant to be a bedspread.

They decided their next costume would celebrate the work of eccentric artist Len Lye, and they designed a feminine costume collaborating ideals of his kinetic sculpture, Blade, and his experimental films.

The garment was made using a lot of 16 and 35mm film sewn together, with an over skirt of many metal panels and a head piece which is an old film projector.

The couple named the costume Individual Happiness Now, after one of Len Lye’s best known philosophies and gained permission from the Len Lye Foundation to use his work as inspiration.

Although it did not win a prize in the competition it was selected and kept on display at Nelson’s WOW museum for the following year.

The Haydocks final piece on show in the Plimmerton Gallery is named Queen Bobbindelacia after the 600 year old craft of handmade bobbin lace.

The costume is inspired by the lace cushions and gold pins which play a key part in making this type of lace.

“She is both beautiful and menacing to represent the extremes of her craft.”

The couple say the specialist craft of lace is at the risk of dying out because of the advances of technology, so the costume has been created to immortalise the craft.

Vicki who learned the craft in the 80’s, spent countless hours making all the lace.

Mark handmade the giant pins, and the bobbins and beads involved in the costume were collected over many years of travel.

Queen Bobbindelacia took two years to complete. After being turned down on the first application to WOW, the couple remade the costume to give it more wow factor, and it was accepted the following year.

The standards are going up all the time and it’s getting harder and harder to get selected, says Mark.

“A lot of the ones that do well on stage are the ones that bring out a character and come alive with the music.”

The Haydocks, who have three children, say there’s a lot of work involved making the costumes, but they think they’ll do some more in the future.

The Artable Wear exhibition will show at The Emerging Light Gallery untill October 15th.

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