A Closer Look Into the WOW Designer's Mind: An Interview About Magic
There are moments in life that stop you in your tracks and make you think: how did I get here? Walking into WOW with a press pass around my neck was one of those moments.
I had been invited to attend WOW as press, and I want you to understand what that actually meant. I wasn't just going to the show. I was being welcomed behind the curtain, into the world of the people who make the magic. I walked through those doors alongside some of the most talented journalists and creatives I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, all-exclusive pass in hand, completely pinching myself. And somewhere in the middle of all of that wonder, I was handed what I can only describe as a golden ticket: the opportunity to sit down and interview two of the WOW designers themselves.
I still can't quite believe it happened.
But what is WOW?
World of Wearable Arts
WOW began as the dream of one woman who wanted to take art off walls and make it move.
Dame Suzie Moncrieff's vision to give art a true, living, mobile form on a stage is the heartbeat of everything WOW stands for. It is the world's only global fashion show dedicated entirely to transforming art into wearable, breathing, moving pieces worn on a human body. Not just fashion. Wearable art. WOW is also a competition, drawing artists from every corner of the globe to have their creations honoured under lights, set to music, brought to life by dancers and performers on a stage that celebrates the art of adorning a body in the most extraordinary ways imaginable.
I got a golden ticket to Interview Two of the Designers -about art, creativity, their designs, their dreams, their WOW experience and of course, magic.
Stephanie Cossens: Call of the Kokako
Hanna Smith: Revolution
A Moment of Gratitude
I need to pause here, because this deserves to be said properly.
This was Derya's Magical Journey's very first interview. My first. And I am so deeply honoured that it happened in a place as extraordinary as WOW, in one of the coolest hotels in Wellington no less, the iconic QT. It feels fitting. It feels like the universe knew what it was doing.
I want to thank Stephanie and Hanna from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of what is an incredibly busy, emotionally charged week to sit with me, share their stories, and answer my questions with such warmth and openness. I walked away from that conversation feeling genuinely changed. And I want to thank WOW publicist Siobhan Waterhouse, who made the whole thing possible and who saw Derya's Magical Journey and decided it deserved a seat at the table. I will never forget it.
Now. Let's get into it.
Diving Into the Minds of WOW Designers
Could you tell me and my readers a little bit about yourself?
Steph: My name is Steph and I'm from the South Island, Dunedin, and a small town called Glenorchy near Lake Wakatipu. I moved to Wellington about six years ago for more creative opportunities, and I've been here ever since. I went to art school in Dunedin and now I have a studio here where I practice soft sculpture, ceramics and costume-making. Wellington is a brilliant creative city and I love living here. And I recently had a baby, Jasper, who is three months old. Time for creative work is precious right now, so being at WOW and getting to immerse myself in creativity again feels incredible.
There is something quietly remarkable about a woman who has just brought a human being into the world and is still showing up for her art. Steph, you are a superwoman and I hope you know it.
Hanna: I'm from Australia, grew up in New South Wales, but I've spent time living in a few different countries. I have this simultaneous love for design and languages that I've always kept going in parallel. I studied fashion and linguistics, so now I teach English while keeping my focus firmly on fashion and creativity.
Derya: What's your favourite language?
Hanna: I spent time in Italy, so I love speaking Italian.
Derya: Italy! Don't even get me started on Italy.
Hanna: And the food!
Derya:The food.
(For the record: I have been to Italy over seven times and I am not even slightly embarrassed about it. It is one of the most magnificent places I have ever set foot in. Italian magic is absolutely coming to this blog, so stay with me.)
My Favourite Question, The One I Ask Everyone
What was your biggest, wildest dream when you were 5 to 8 years old?
I ask every new person I meet this question. I believe it tells you everything important about a person.
Steph: I was completely obsessed with animals. I dreamed of being a zookeeper, or doing something, anything, that kept me close to animals. I think it came from being surrounded by so many of them growing up.
Hanna: I wanted to be, very specifically, a vet nurse. Not a vet. A vet nurse. Only that. And somehow, inexplicably, I found my way into design instead.
What is your biggest, wildest dream right now?
Steph: I want more time to be creative. Just more of it. Society pulls us in so many directions: money, family, responsibilities. I want to carve out more space to be truly passionate about something unique and different. To keep making, keep exploring new materials, keep trying things. Fashion is part of it, but for me it's really art and sculpture that set my soul on fire.
Hanna: My dream is somewhere at the intersection of design and science. There's something called Arts at CERN, a programme at the world's largest science laboratory in Switzerland, where artists and physicists are brought together to inspire one another. Fashion shows in a particle accelerator. Art inside the machine that's trying to unlock the secrets of the universe. If I could be part of that in some way, that would be it. That would be the dream.
I went down a rabbit hole googling Arts at CERN after this conversation and I have not fully recovered. It is exactly as extraordinary as it sounds. And after seeing Hanna's WOW piece, Revolution, I can think of nowhere on earth more fitting for her.
How old were you when creativity first sparked in you?
Steph: The spark was always there, honestly, but the moment it really ignited was at school. Every year our school did its own Wearable Arts show for Queenstown, and we always won because we put so much love into it. I adored it: the theatre, the lighting, being part of something that big. I was about seven or ten. So I've been a WOW girl for a very long time. And then in art school, I had the defining realisation: I could make my sculptures move by putting them on a body. That changed everything.
Hanna: It was gradual for me. My mum used to make clothes for me and for my Barbies when I was little. She worked so hard to make us beautiful things even when buying them wasn't an option. Watching her do that with so much love was the thing that first opened the door to art for me. It later grew into making things with Lego, drawing, and eventually any form of expression I could get my hands on. But it all started with those little handmade dresses. Art is most beautiful when it comes from a place of love, and my mum was my first proof of that.
What excites you the most about being here at WOW?
Hanna: Seeing my outfit be brought to life by the model, the production, the music. Seeing what the team has done to honour it. That reveal is everything.
Steph: The first time you come to WOW, you genuinely don't know what the production team will do with your piece. And then you walk into that auditorium and you see your outfit on that stage and you think: that's mine. That's my story.Everything just comes together in a way you never imagined. I got teary when I saw it for the first time.
One Word. That's All You Get.
If you had to describe your WOW outfit in a single word to someone who's never seen it, what would it be? And if it had a magical power, what would that be?
Steph: My outfit is inspired by the Kōkako, a native New Zealand bird tied to a beautiful Māori legend. When Māui was battling the sun, it was the Kōkako who brought him water to keep him going. In return, Māui gifted the bird its extraordinary long legs, so it could race through the trees. I honoured that by giving my model these incredible long black boots, so she could strut across that stage the way the Kōkako runs through the forest. The word? Sassy. Sassy and confident. And the magical power? To run straight toward the sun and face it without flinching.
The Legend of Māui and the Sun
For those who want to go deeper:
Māui is one of the great demigods of Māori mythology, a hero and a trickster, famous for one of the most audacious acts in legend: slowing down the sun. The sun, in those days, tore across the sky so quickly that days were over before anyone could fish, eat, work, or simply live. Māui decided this was unacceptable. He travelled for days to find where the sun god rested, built a wall of clay to shield himself from the heat, laid a trap and caught the sun. He then commanded it to move slowly across the sky. And from that day, the days grew longer, the light more generous, the world a little kinder.
All because one person refused to accept that the light was beyond their reach.
Hanna: Mine is very different. It's about revolutionary science in the Elizabethan era, specifically the groundbreaking theories of planetary orbit. It describes a moment when human beings first began to understand how the universe moves. The word? Revolutionary. And the magical power? A twirling, spinning, rotating, flying kind of power. Like the planets themselves.
The Last Question, and It's the Best One
When you think of magic, what comes to your mind first?
Hanna: I grew up deep in fantasy. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Disney. Magic for me has always lived in those worlds, in those stories. It's vast and it's everywhere. But when I really sit with it? Magic is the feeling that everything is exactly as it should be.
Steph: For me, magic lives in the natural world. It's swimming in the sea. It's sunlight coming through a window. It's that feeling of deep, quiet peace, like everything has settled and nothing is missing. Magic isn't out of reach or make-believe. It isn't hiding somewhere. It is all around us, all the time, if we let ourselves feel it.
Hanna: The feeling that everything is as it should be.
They hit the jackpot with that one.
Magic is not make-believe. It is not reserved for the extraordinary or the chosen or the lucky. It exists around us because it exists within us, tucked inside our humanity, waiting to be claimed by anyone willing to look.
Steph: New Zealand is a brilliant place to find that feeling. All this peaceful nature, everywhere you turn. You don't have to go looking very hard.
She's right. New Zealand is a magic goldmine, and if you want to discover more of it, head over to the New Zealand Travel page.
All photo credit is due to WOW press team.
