It's a DRESS, not a top!

Your backstage pass and black sunglasses
Make you look just like a queen
Even the fans, they know your face
From all of the magazines, but
Do you love me?
Kiss - Do you Love Me

On the day of shooting this dress, I got a call from photographer, Paula Delley asking if I minded if model Ava wore black capri pants with the strapless leopard print top. "I did'nt give you a strapless leopard print top" I replied. After a little more chat, I realised that she meant this dress!

The 'Backstage Pass' dress will form part of a retrospective collection I am planning for 2009.

It is made from 95% Cotton and 5% Spandex, it has a whopping 50cm invisible zip in the centre back to allow easy, um, removal. Unlike most of my dresses, I have left this dress unlined as it's more of a metal gig dress than an afternoon tea dress. *wink*

2009 will mark 20 years since I started 'sewing school' (I left high school in 1988 to do the Clothing & Craft course that Melbourne College of Textiles was offering at the time). I was mad about hard rock and heavy metal and wished with all my heart to be as cool as the girls in all of the music videos.

Now, I know some people will scold me for the name of this dress and perhaps find my inspiration a little distastful, but I feel that I must add, that while my best friend and I sat in our seats waiting for the band to come on, women wearing tiny skirts and dresses, killer high heels and sky scraper hair queued up to meet these bands, I never saw a woman being dragged backstage.

So, in the upcoming months, I am going to make pieces inspired by the very thing that made me want to start sewing, rock n' roll.

*Noteworthy people who did this course with me are Jodii Ruggero (who runs successful Pattern and Dressmaking company Thursday's Child), Anthony Pitturino and Jacob Luppino (who collectively run couture house J'Aton).