State Library of Victoria

Oh what a fabulous event this was!

“Who would have expected that Melbourne Fashion Week could include such an original gem of a spectacle as Liberty of the Press?”

Michael Brindley – Stage Whispers

Undoubtedly the most moving and thoughtfully wrought event in the MSFW calendar of events

Iolanthe Gabrie – Ruby Slipper

“…A visual and aural feast of fashion, design, performance and music“

Myron My – Theatre Press

CLICK HERE to see the event on Vimeo

Liberty of the Press: If History is told by the Victors, what happened to everybody else?

Barking Spider artists collaborated with fashion house and textile designers New Model Beauty Queen (NMBQ), and with footwear designers and manufacturers Preston Zly. The two companies created a range of clothing and footwear based on Mrs Butter’s extraordinary Press Dress. The Press Dress holds the stories – histories – from Gold Rush 1866 Melbourne. The stories do not, however, represent everyone living and working in Melbourne at the time. In Liberty of the Press, we focused on showcasing two under-recognised groups: women and Chinese immigrants.

Photos by Sarah Walker.

The Sponsors

Kwikkopy

Ardena Imports

Myles AV

Ere Perez

Australian College of Hair Design and Beauty

Chinese Melbourne Daily

The fashion show challenged the norm in the fashion industry, presenting a unique theatre-fashion event, employing performers and a-typical models. This was a celebration Australian women and the unique Australian woman’s identity – which Mrs Butters represents. The fashion show challenged standard fashion views and beliefs on body type and beauty, and integrated theatrical form derived from informed by our research into Mrs Butters and the Press Dress. In the performance there were three reinvented versions of Mrs Butter’s Press Dress to stand as the centrepieces of this fashion show, alongside a peep-show and 18 performer models. The original Press Dress was on display for one night only, installed for the event. We showcased Chinese culture through a collaboration with the Chinese Masonic Society, incorporating aspects of traditional Chinese performance – a Lion Dance – into the theatre-fashion event.

Liberty of the Press integrated installation, puppetry, live performance and percussion into a theatre-fashion show, taking over both the Dome reading Room and Queens Hall, and finishing up on the State Library Forecourt.

Event Background:

2013 marked the centenary of the Dome Reading Room in the State Library of Victoria (SLV). In addition to the fellowships offered each year by the SLV, this year the SLV – to celebrate the centenary – awarded four special fellowships, and Barking Spider Visual Theatre was fortunate enough to receive one.

We have researched the life of the extraordinary Mrs Matilda Butters, and one particular dress she created for a fancy-dress ball in 1866, the “Press Dress”. This dress was created from silk panels, designed and printed from newspapers of the day. Mrs Butters wore a coronet, and carried a staff upon which was a miniature printing press, from which she printed lines from Byron’s poem “Lara”, which she handed to people at the ball. Her incredible costume and actions assisted in her husband’s rise in power and importance in politics and business in Melbourne.

Recently on display at the SLV, an Age Newspaper journalist described Mrs Butters as the “Lady Gaga of Marvellous Melbourne” (Dewi Cooke), July 6, 2013.

ARTISTIC TEAM

Penelope Bartlau – Artistic Director

Darius Kedros – Sound Designer and Composer

Emily Barrie – Production Designer

Richard Vabre – Lighting Designer

Sandra Long – Collaborative Researcher

New Model Beauty Queen – Costume & fashion design

Preston Zly – Footwear design

The Chinese Masonic Society of Melbourne – Lion Dancers and Drummers

Sarah Walker – Photographer

Leah Scholes – Solo drummer

Rebecca Morton – Opera singer

Tom Warneke – Production Manager

Artists and fashion designers collaborated on the research, investigation, exploration creative development and production of this extraordinary event, inspired by this extraordinary woman, at large in “Marvellous Melbourne”.

Barking Spider Visual Theatre “…created an amazing experience in the State Library that started with the Press Dress worn by Matilda Butters to a fancy dress ball in 1866. It explored how Melbourne society saw women and Chinese immigrants in the 1860s and tied it all to now with moving (and moving) explorations of fashion, ethnicity and bodies. It was all so beautiful, but my favourite moment was standing in the State Library Dome room – which was full of people studying and Facebooking – knowing that in any moment their peace would be broken by loud drums.” Anne Marie Peard – Sometimes Melbourne.