'I just love the visual appeal of latex' - Harvard-educated fashion designer wins top WOW prize
A latex catsuit with a design that resembles Japanese porcelain won husband-and-wife Dawn Mostow and Ben Gould the 2025 Supreme World of WearableArts Award.
Dawn Mostow's latex creations have featured in Vogue and been worn by Beyoncé and Björk, but the American costume designer celebrates timelessness over fashion in her award-winning 2025 WOW entry.
Tsukumogamihonours the way Japanese culture brings respect for ancient traditions into the modern era - something Mostow experienced during a three-year stint there as an English teacher.
"Even though I'm not Japanese, I was welcomed into their culture. I just love the aesthetic, and I love the beauty, and I love the belief system… I'm just happy to share this folklore with the world this way," she tells Saturday Morning.
2025 Supreme Award Winner 'Tsukumogami' by Dawn Mostow & Ben Gould from the United States.
Andi Crown
Mostow, who has a visual arts degree from Harvard University, accepted the top WOW award with her creative partner Ben Gould and their son Tobias on a video call from Georgia.
There, Mostow works in the costume department on movie sets and creates custom-made garments in laser-cut latex - a material with a "visual appeal" she loves - for her clothing label Dawnamatrix.
Husband-and-wife costume design team Ben Gould and Dawn Mostow have been entering the World of WearableArt Awards since 2017.
via Dawnmatrix
"Visual impact" is the biggest thing to consider when designing an entry for the World of WearableArts Awards, she says, and this impact has to be apparent both close up and "in the back row".
For Tsukumogami, Mostow and Gould recreated the look of sometsuke (染付) - the blue-and-white Japanese ceramic design that's become "sort of a universal language," she says, and cared for by families around the world through the generations.
Tsukumogami - a latex garment inspired by ancient Japanese mythology and ceramics - won American designers Dawn Mostow and Ben Gould the 2025 Supreme WOW Award.
Stephen A'Court
The Japanese believe that after centuries of use, objects can be imbued with spirit, Mostow says.
"[These pieces of porcelain] have been used, they've gotten damaged, but also their owners have honoured them and honoured their journey. They're taking them through time by repairing them and honouring them."
Although the WOW judges raved about the "off-the-scale" beauty of Tsukumogami , Mostow says she wouldn't have received this year's Supreme Award without the whole World WearableArts team.
"Everybody worked together to create that magic."
