Creating the WOW factor

Meg Williams, in charge of the biggest festival involving a bunch of people wearing wacky outfits, admits she's not very flamboyant in her own dressing.

-  MICHELE HEWITSON

Meg Williams, the chief executive of World of Wearable Art - that flamboyant fashion and design spectacle that is part-theatre and part-circusis valiantly making a not entirely successful effort to be a bit more WOW-y with her wardrobe.

She's a Wellingtonian through and through, despite the West Sussex accent the legacy of her upbringing in the oh-so-English village of Horsham. She took to an artsy Wellington life as though she'd actually been born there, so of course she wears a lot of black. It is obligatory.

If you live in Wellington, you wear black, although you can accessorise it with wacky jewellery. I'd seen a picture of her wearing tartan trousers. Tartan trousers, I say, hopefully, might be a bit flamboyant.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself a flamboyant dresser," says Williams. "I wouldn't even say that I like fashion because that would suggest that I'm very knowledgeable in it, which I'm not. I love design. And actually, since I've had this job, I do feel a little bit more permission to wear some of the things that are hidden in the back of my wardrobe."

She does a mental rummage through the back of her wardrobe for something flamboyant and, voilà, conjures a gold glitter jacket. This is a relief to both of us. In truth, she is more chief executive, appropriately given her job title, than ringmaster. She is calm and sensible and practical and efficient, which is what you'd expect from a juggler of budgets and people and expectations, which is what chief executives do, really.

She is talking to me from her office. It's not flash, but it does have a nice view of Wellington Harbour. She began her career in event management in the UK, sticking up posters and volunteering.

She's seen the insides of many offices. Some have been "completely mad", she says. She's worked out of portacabins and the crypt of a London church.