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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
So far this week's Guest Blog from The Australian Ballet is making me feel like a little girl in lolly shop! I'm giddy with excitement and overwhelmed by how beautiful everything is! Mostly I'm amazed by the talent of those who, piece by piece, contribute to every element of the production. - Jenny x
I’m ushered into a large workroom where seamstresses are quietly fastening hems with precision. Inside the wardrobe department of The Primrose Potter Australian Ballet Centre, swathes of silk are pinned to a mannequin named Pavlova, piles of tulle sprout from table corners, and huge wicker baskets filled with boots and slippers line the walls.
While The Australian Ballet is touring Tokyo and Nagoya, wardrobe production manager Michael Williams agrees to give me a sneak peek at the restoration process of Stanton Welch’s seductive production of Madame Butterfly. The ballet, an adaptation of Puccini’s classic opera, was designed by Peter Farmer, one of the dance world’s most experienced and revered artists. His costumes – all 170 of them – are currently undergoing necessary repairs before the company next performs the ballet, from February 2011.
In the workroom, amidst the maze of deep plum organza ball gowns and mossy green kimonos, there lie several ‘Kabuki Sailor’ costumes that appear to be bleeding deep crimson, and a set of black mesh masks that look suitable for fencing. It is a ballet of stark contrasts, with the ultra-feminine, languid kimonos placed against the warrior-like outfits worn by the dominating males.
Diaphanous silks float delicately from the arms of the female dancers, seeming only to illuminate the pathos of Butterfly’s story. Sculptural black head-dresses worn by the Japanese men might have been plucked out of a Philip Treacy showroom, whereas Butterfly’s girlfriends wear flowers in their hair so delicate it is as though each young woman has been sprinkled with cherry blossoms.
- Annie Carroll, a former dancer with The Australian Ballet who hung up her pointe shoes in 2009 to study media and communications. When Annie is not putting pen to paper, she is most likely found indulging her passion for independent publications, perusing pretty clothes, and digesting tea and biscuits.
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