An exciting part of what I do is when people give me clothing for my business. Often the clothing has a very special meaning to the owner, but they are just ready to clean out the closets and make room for other things. My friend Michelle called me around to her place one day to show me her collection of old ballgowns and flower girl dresses and see if any of them would be useful for my business. I was so excited as they were amazing. Michelle had kept them nicely looked after. They had all been dry cleaned and stored in plastic on hangers. All in superb condition. With some of the dresses, Michelle held them up and said, “You wouldn’t want this Belinda” and I answered with, “No, you are wrong – this is amazing! This is different!” I ended up leaving her house with about six to eight dresses. Michelle was happy as her dresses were going on to live another life, instead of being put in a clothing bin or an opshop. Plus I was extremely happy as it made my creative juices flow. I could imagine what I was going to do with the dresses. What kind of girl I would put in them, what kind of styling and how I could photograph them.
Here are a couple of the dresses I have used so far and the stories behind them plus original photos of the dresses.
Michelle had to search for the photo of a flower girl dress in some old photo albums and made a comment:
“Oh lordy – bringing back the 80s!! It ties at the back and then the girls had a flower halo in their hair. I’ll try and track down a pic.” Then the photo arrived in a message to me with with the comment, “Circa 1987. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!”
Michelle’s sister wore this cream puffed sleeve dress when she was 13 years old. Her sister is the tallest girl on the right hand side. She looks amazing – a perfect flower girl.
I did a model call in the July school holidays and chose a girl named Alyssa to wear the dress. At first I felt like she drew the short straw as it was a very different dress and not at all modern – however when she put it on and I started taking the photos I could see how striking the images were. She looked a little bit like a milk maid, but a very elegant one. Laura Hall from Tiggy Tails did Alyssa’s hair. We were initially going to do a braid down the side, but decided on a milkmaid braid across the top of her head to add to the effect of the dress. I absolutely love the final images. They are different images from some other ones I’ve made, and I’m very proud of them. Thanks Michelle for your sister’s old dress!
Here is Michelle in a ball dress, aged 15. It is a very late 80s early 90s design with a beautiful lace bodice that has been dyed to match the colour of the skirt.
She made a comment about the photos and this ball:
“I look like my face fell in a bag of eyeshadow!!! And don’t ask me what’s going on with my hair. I blame Mum again. She had everything to do with this whole outfit as I had no clue. It was my first ball and I was only 15. Look like a baby compared to the 15 year olds of today!”
I told Michelle that she was perfectly in fashion for the time and looked like Winona Ryder – very pouty and like a movie star.
Michelle asked, “Did I end up with Johnny Depp then?”
I chose a model named Ella to wear the dress. It fitted her nearly perfectly which was amazing. Laura from Tiggy Tails made a braided bun on top of her head which made her look very elegant and showed off her amazing neck and shoulders. Ella’s Mum loved the following photo – the perfect expression and pose for Ella, making her look totally beautiful.
I’m so grateful to Michelle for donating her dresses to me! I hope I did them justice in these photos and I hope to use them again in many more shoots in the future!
