From the outside WOW, or World of Wearable Arts, seems to be a flurry for tickets, the excitement of spotting the winners, incredible talents on display and a warm sense of thrill at our own inventiveness.

What possibly doesn’t hit our internally-focussed radars is what WOW brings to us at a global level.

My involvement in tourism also covers hosting media and guests who visit for events just like WOW.  Each year the depth of coverage is greater and WOW is reported on across the globe, but in particular Asia.  The number of WOW entries from Asia has increased dramatically and so has the media interest.

My City Week has been an Asian fusion of delights starting with hosting a media group representing Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  Admittedly my guests were slightly off the beaten track on one of our Boutique Beer Tasting tours, but man cannot live by art and fashion alone.  Neil Miller our beer host did a storming job of juggling two film crews and a bunch of journalists whose enthusiasm for WOW, Wellington and boutique beer was infectious.  Three hours with this group saw Neil interviewed on Shanghai and Taiwan television, and leading television host Chen Chen, who has her own show, did a clever piece on beer tasting the capital.

Of course I merely make up the crowd scene, but to please my mother(!), I do keep a record of our golden moments.  Below is a photo of Chen Chen in action.

Chen Chen is exquisitely cute and later as we walk along the street she waxes lyrically about Wellington as a great city, so easy to get around and a wonderful centre of creativity.  We love that.

Beauty attracts beauty and we even have our own male model in the pack.  Gerry from Shanghai is over 6 foot, wears boots to the knee with his jeans tucked in and sports a fashion shoot smile at all times.  He is here to strut out in some of our New Zealand garb during Fashion Week.  He assures me he eats properly and by the way he digs into the blue cheese as a beer match, I really think he does!

The highlight of my week would have to be meeting Rajesh Pratap Singh.  The name may not jump out for many, but Rajesh is here as a VIP guest for WOW, and is a world class fashion designer from India.  Rajesh has not only taken India’s Fashion Week by storm over a number of years, he debuted his collections in Paris in 2008 and retails to the European market through that success.  In addition to owning six flagship stores in India he is a brand ambassador to Absolut vodka in India and has worked with Theatre du Chatelet costuming the whole opera cast of ‘Padmavati by Albert Roussel’.

Deep and quietly spoken, he portrays a quiet sensitivity.  He has been quoted as saying that he lets his clothes do the talking.  Agreed – a visit to his website may be the closest I come to his garments, but they speak volumes of his love of the silhouette.  He has beautiful wise eyes and a couple of hours tasting delectable beer and food matches in his company will be on my list of highlights for some time to come.

He needs no photograph, but a visit to this site will fill in the gaps.

While this week has come to a glamorous end, there is more next week as I take a high-end fashion magazine from Korea on a spin around Wellington’s designers.

My special THANK YOU award this week goes to Kit Foe, Head Chef at St Johns for creating outstanding original food matches to go with a range of beer served to our special clients this week.  What can’t that guy do with an artichoke?

Have a WOW of a week

Jennifer