What I actually wore #0026

Serial #: 0026
Date: 11/02/2009
Weather: forecast 20°
Time Allowed: 5 minutes

This outfit is all about the dress. I fell in love with that particular shade of blue – a dusky cornflower blue – and I have always had a sneaking liking for silk dupioni, as much as it reminds me of the Eighties. I love the complicated ‘double’ bodice created by a plunging V-neckline and a halterneck, and the inverted pleats at the waist. It’s always the unusual cuts that grab my attention. Some people might call that ‘arty’ dressing. 

In the label’s advertising campaign, the model wore the crimson version of this dress with nothing but an enormous chest-sized necklace; in reality I’d be risking a wardrobe malfunction if I did that. I’ve worn it with a silk camisole and a necklace of thickly woven black thread strung with seed pearls and moonstones. I always thought it looked like the product of some remarkably patient indigenous jeweller somewhere, as the weaving is reminiscent of a fishing net. The tiny teardrop pearls I found many years ago at a stall in Camberwell’s Sunday market.

And just in case I felt too dainty parading about in blue silk, I wore my clomping black heels to bring me back to earth.

Items:

Dress: Ammo
Camisole: Diesel
Necklace: a long-gone boutique that was next to City Hatters in Melbourne’s Flinders Street.
Earrings: Camberwell Market
Rings: (sterling silver) Roun, (grey shell, sterling silver) NGV Shop
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Shoes: Zoe Wittner