Wearable Art Show

Festival Location: Ketchikan, AK, USA

Festival State: Alaskan Festivals

Festival Type(s): Art Festivals, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

While I wouldn't advise a long-distance trek to cozy little Ketchikan for the Wearable Art Show held every February since 1986, if you're in the area, this one's got the goods. Each year there's a new theme, like "Living on the Edge," "Fantasy Island," or "Garbage into Gold." And area artists, housewives, bankers, butchers, you name it, spend a good part of the year (especially during the long winters) in their basements creating wild, wearable works of art out of various textiles, paper mache, tarps and foliage.

Local competition is fierce, so rumors fly all year about who was seen where talking to who about what kind of hard-to-find material. It's got all the makings of a Flannery O'Connor story set in the cold country. A recent entry for the show, created by Sara Lawson, was a ball gown made almost entirely out of chicken wire. Tickets for the fashion show are $15 for adults and $10 for children, students, and seniors.