oh my goodness you must go

please note, male readers. you might think you're not interested in this post, as it's about clothes, fashion etc. but please do persist. read it. or if you really can't be bothered, just scroll down for some treats at the bottom. hurrrr. you won't be disappointed. double hurrrr.

yesterday we drove up to bendigo to see the golden age of couture exhibition, which has been brought out to australia from the victoria and albert museum in london.

may i say what a spiffing idea to host this show in bendigo? it's the only place in the country it will be seen, the place was heaving with fashion freaks, and lucky us got to skip the lengthy queue because my mum walks with a stick.

hooray for the disabled!

it was just us three. mum, me and princess.

let me tell you about princess and fashion. while her mama is not too sartorially challenged (i have been called the glamorous one in our family) (don't laugh those of you who have actually met me) (stop it now) (i mean it), princess has both beautiful taste and a stunning little frame, gorgeous features and inherent style. and she's only 12.

she also has a fierce intellect and terrifically generous, kind nature, but we're not talking about that.

this is something of the history of princess and clothes:

- up until about the age of 4 or 5, her hair was wild, curly and lush. i would primp it up with all manner of clips: strawberry clips, tweetie-pie clips, purple-sequinned clips. i have a photo of her at age 3 on the st kilda boardwalk with wild yellow sunglasses, green fake-fur coat, purple leggings, and major attitude. think photos of matilda ledger out and about in soho atop heath's shoulders.

- also up until the age of about 4 or 5 she would wear what i dressed her in. then it changed.

- she has been a very girly, pink-addicted person, until a few years ago, so when she was about 8 or 9, she started liking black, and green. black, of course, is an imperative in this fair city, green as anyone knows goes gorgeously with dark, mahogany hair and olive skin. she has instinctively steered clear of fluros (dead-set proof of her innate style) and ugly patterns, and colour clashes.

- she has always been a very dressy girl. even now when she is more into jeans and tops, she accessorises very seriously. she has a serious silver jewellry collection, with a few yellow gold pieces. she doesn't over accessorise although there was a time when she did.

- when she was about 7 she decided she wanted to sew a dress for her little cousin, who was then about 3. we bought some fabric at spotlight, and she hand cut and sewed a kind of pinafore. at that stage, ex-husband ali was out visiting and i'll never forget coming home one afternoon and finding the two of them, hard at work on the dress. he was sitting on the couch cross-legged, sewing in hand. our little girl had asked him to help her and there he was sewing, like a turkish tailor. this dress was worn precisely once, a photo taken, and then put up as a wall hanging in my niece's room.

- more recently, princess has been sketching beautiful designs of frocks. she really does do a good job of it. she has the mannequin shape down pat, the curve of hip, the tight-little waist. she has been asking myriad questions about fashion, and more specifically, the history of fashion. what did people wear in the 1800s? when did women wear those hoops under their dresses? when did they have their bosoms spilling out? when did they have high necks? how much money do fashion designers make? how do you become a fashion designer? how do you become a famous fashion designer? she's quite impressed by alannah hill because we see her around occasionally in her black merc. princess calls her 'esme', after a character in twilight; she does look a bit vampira with her hair and red lips. once she was behind me at the lights, eating something as she was driving. she was wearing dark gloves.

Now, as of yesterday afternoon, the questions have all been about couture. I have been struggling to answer them, but I did my best.

The reason for this going to the show and talking about clothes. And these:

this was a wedding dress princess particularly liked.

these were miniature items to show what kind of couture the average client would have.

so then all the way home in the car it was i want couture, i don't want target or jay-jays. i want to have nice clothes.

what have i started?

tomorrow i'll talk about what it was that i liked at the collection. i have a new-found love of richard avedon photography, and the confirmed belief that no-one does fashion like the designers and models of the '40s and '50s. no one. not kate moss, not sarah-jessica parker, not posh spice.

no one.

now for the reward patient male humans.

is this not the most beautiful lingerie you have ever seen? i found it while researching the other stuff. it's from strumpet and pink and i am now going to check prices.

melting and throbbing right now.

more of this tomorrow as well.

shame about the parquetry floor. do hate a parquetry floor. it offends my aesthetic for some reason. not symmetrical enough? all the lines going different ways? disturbs my brain. but the knickers, oh the knickers.

happy tuesday to you.