Posts by Kat George

The tutu motif is often difficult to avoid, especially in fashion, and the spring/summer 2011 collections at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week were no exception. As ballet muscled its way onto the runway in the form of whimsical dresses and show-stopping creations, the traditional garment got a facelift as designers experimented with textures and themes. Ellery, a fashion week favourite, for instance, did Bowie ballet, giving the tutu skirt a hard, rock’n’roll edge with leather and feather boas.

Likewise, Gail Sorronda re-imagined the tutu with her signature ethnic flourishes. Referencing Eastern cultures, the tutu silhouette appeared several times throughout the Gail Sorronda range, including a longer tiered dress with tulle peeking from underneath the hem softening it for easy-to-wear practicality. Konstantina Mittas reimagined the tutu through with vibrant eccentricity. From a sashaying yellow dress with a short projecting skirt, to an equally voluminous patterned skirt with daring front split, Konstantina Mittas’s creations gave ballet-inspired fashion a daredevil spin.

Alex Perry’s dancer was softer, graceful and supple in lace, sporting a sheer décolletage and delicately rounded skirt. The veteran designer incorporated all the whimsy of that other ubiquitous ballet motif – the swan – in floaty, feathered dresses. Aurelio Costarella also invoked the grace of the swan with the movement of petallike layers in nude shades and, like Ellery, took the tutu for a dark turn with black tulle.

Costarella found inspiration off the ballet stage as well – in the rows of avid audience goers – with a sparkling gown and fur stole perfect for nights taking in the theatre. But a cut above them all was Romance Was Born’s vibrant dinosaur ballerina, a glitter spangled stegosaurus creature complete with horned back and hot pink tutu.

This year’s L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival was borne of myriad of inspirations, reflecting the pervading nature of art. Layers of ideas and innovation overlap until sometimes the lines between mediums disappear altogether. In such a way, fashion often embraces the aesthetics of dance, and vice-versa. At LMFF, models paraded the wares (or wears) of designers representing every colour of the style pinwheel, and a few glided down the runway in distinctly ballet-inspired ensembles.

Perhaps the most conspicuous aesthetic manifestation of ballet, the tutu represents both the graceful femininity and extraordinary power of the ballerina. Appearing in unadulterated form at the whimsical LMFF opening couture party, the tutu was seen on Colette Dinnigan’s Alice in Wonderland-inspired creation, while it gained voluminous proportions for Michelle Jank’s Fantasia-inspired frock. The tutu appeared again (albeit in much more wearable form) in Fleur Wood’s sporty yet girlie range, romantic fairy floss-pink paired with grey marle for the pared-back princess.

Michael Angel took the idea of the tutu to a shadowy place, reimagining a black queen whose spidery sheer over-garments suggest foreboding  melancholy and dark romance. On the flipside of the shade spectrum, designers Ellery and Therese Rawsthorne presented the tutu silhouette in traditional ballet sorbet colours, using their stylish expertise to create sexy, modern numbers. Ballet is in the subtleties – open your eyes and imagination, and you will begin to see it all around you. Take Maticevski’s feathered dress in dusty rose and pastel shades for example, refocus your mind, and see the fluid movements of a swan dancing before you in a flurry of enigmatic feminine awakening.

Kat George is a freelance writer, dumpling eater and shoe fetishist. She hopes to one day fulfil her dream of becoming a super hybrid of her heroes Kate Bush and John McClane.