Faris came to Te Herenga Waka in 2023 on a twin-degree programme from Malaysia, recently completing a Bachelor of Commerce. While his degree was chosen based on his confidence in maths, it was Faris’ creative side that brought him to Wellington.
Faris had heard the city had the right balance of city life and relaxed atmosphere. “Once I came here, I realised that Wellington, personally for me, is the best city for creatives.”
Faris’s interest in making clothes began with a passion for fashion. “I like to dress up, so it started off with a lot of styling... very weirdly,” Faris laughed, "I don’t even want to look at the archives.”
“It wasn’t until the first year of my degree, in 2022, that I started dabbling in upcycling clothes and sewing for fun.”
By the summer of 2023–4, Faris had become comfortable flipping clothes, and began making clothes from scratch.
In June 2024, Faris heard about WOW when talking to a performer and quickly became intrigued.
He came up with the concept for the garment before seeing the competition categories, and by the time October rolled around, he had begun gathering materials. “I thought of Wau Bulan before I even saw the sections. When I saw that ‘Air’ was a section, I knew I had to do it.”
Faris’ garment, Wau Bulan, represents a tradition and national symbol in Malaysia, “Wau Bulan in itself is a symbolic piece of art, and a very unique take on a kite itself. I wanted to bring that to life.”
The corset was made with a traditional Sarawakian Batik, highlighting Faris’ birthplace in Sarawak, Malaysia. “It’s not my culture per se, but because I was born there I wanted to incorporate that part of Malaysia into the garment.”
“You never know exactly what WOW judges are looking for. So I think the most important part is understanding your storyline, and what you’re trying to embody, because art in itself is a story. You need to understand what the garment represents to you.”
The hardest part was working with a tight deadline. By mid-December the skirt was finished, but he still had to create the wings for his garment before leaving in January for a student exchange to Colombia.
“It was a busy, hectic period of time. I had a part-time job during that, working a hotel night shift from 11 pm to 7 am. I remember it being so crazy that I had to bring one of the wings to the hotel to work on it there, while preparing for my exchange. It was a lot of fun though.”
“I'd also like to give some credit to my friend Matilda, who studied architecture at the University and is now back in Finland.”
Matilda helped Faris finish painting Wau Bulan and added some of the final touches.
Shipping the garment to be judged in Nelson was a challenge in itself, which Matilda helped out with. The garment was too big to fit in any of the shipping boxes, and it had to be shipped after Faris had gone to Colombia.
“She had to make me her own fixer-upper box, it was the last day we could send it over to them,” Faris reflects. “A few days later, I got an email from WOW, saying ‘we’re quite alarmed by the state of your garment’. They sent me a picture of the box, crushed. But the garment itself was fine, it has quite a robust structure,” Faris laughed.
“A lot of the things I included in my garment for WOW were actually furniture materials.”
The wings of the garment were made from rattan rods and repurposed gold curtain trimmings. This meant while robust, they were rather heavy and needed to be held in place with straps covered by shoulder pads.
“I was brainstorming what to do with that, and I remembered going to Vinnies, and seeing these golden Chinese tissue box covers. They were perfect.”
“The collars are inspired by clothes of traditional warriors. I’d call this garment Pahlawan, which is warrior in Malay.”
The garment also has protruding shoulders, and a nod to the size of Wau Bulan’s wings and inspired by Minangkabau houses in Malaysia.
“I went to the awards night, and it was probably the most validating experience I’ve ever had. I’ve never felt more well-loved, and just been surrounded by people so alike, who understand why you do what you do.”
“Days after WOW, I’ve had people come up to me and be like ‘you are gonna be big’, and wow, to hear those words come out of people’s mouths, it means a lot.”
Faris plans on sticking around in Wellington until December Graduation, possibly staying beyond that for work, or even another year of WOW.